As Christmas Is Canceled Again In Palestine, Pope Francis Condemned Israel's Genocide In Gaza As "Cruelty”
After Israel accused the pope of double standards, he instead doubled down on his condemnation, calling it Israel's genocide "so much cruelty."
As Christmas is canceled for the second year in a row in Palestine, Pope Francis has intensified his criticism of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, expressing “pain” over the “cruelty” Israel has inflicted upon children who he says have been “machine-gunned” in the war.
On Dec, 21, the Pope opened his annual Christmas address to Catholic cardinals by condemning an Israeli airstrike a day earlier in Jabalia, in north Gaza, that killed at least 25 Palestinians, including children.
“Yesterday, children were bombed,” the pope said. “This is cruelty. This is not war.”
“I want to say this because it touches the heart,” he added.
Following his remarks, on Sunday, Dec. 22, Israel responded by accusing the pope of “double standards.”
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said his comments were “disconnected” from the “true and factual context of Israel’s fight against jihadist terrorism — a multi-front war that was forced upon it starting on October 7.”
“Cruelty is terrorists hiding behind children while trying to murder Israeli children. Cruelty is holding 100 hostages for 442 days, including a baby and children, and abusing them,” it said on X.
Later that same day, during his weekly Angelus prayer, Pope Francis doubled down on his condemnation of the genocide in Gaza.
“With pain I think of Gaza, of so much cruelty; of the children machine-gunned, the bombing of schools and hospitals… So much cruelty”, the pope said.
He also mentioned the war in Ukraine that began in February 2022 and urged for a ceasefire in Ukraine, across the entire Middle East and on all battlefronts around the world this Christmas.
“May the weapons be silenced and Christmas carols resound,” he said.
The pope’s call comes as Christmas was canceled again in Bethlehem, a city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the birthplace of Jesus, to “stand against the oppression faced by Gaza and all of Palestine”.
Israel’s genocide in Gaza has now killed more than 17,000 children since Oct. 7, according to Al Jazeera.
In fact, children make up about 40% of the more than 45,000 people who have been killed in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the UN.
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