Pope urges end to Gaza fighting in first Sunday address
https://www.jns.org/pope-urges-end-to-gaza-fighting-in-first-sunday-address/
Pope Leo XIV called for “never again war” in his first Sunday address in Vatican City’s St. Peter’s Square since being voted in as pontiff on May 8, according to the official Vatican News outlet.
The first-ever pope from the United States in his message to worshippers lamented the “immense tragedy of the Second World War,” which came to an end 80 years ago on Thursday “after causing 60 million deaths.”
Leo said he was “deeply pained” by the situation in Gaza amid the war against Hamas. “Let the fighting cease immediately, let humanitarian aid be provided to the exhausted civilian population and may all hostages be released,” he said.
The new pontiff also recognized “the suffering of the beloved Ukrainian people” amid the war with Russia, urging that “every effort be made to reach a true, just, and lasting peace as soon as possible” to end the conflict.
The pope also welcomed the recent announcement of a ceasefire between India and Pakistan.
“In today’s dramatic context of a third world war fought piecemeal … I too appeal to the powerful of the world by repeating these ever-relevant words: never again war!” Leo stated, according to the official readout.
Israeli strikes on Gaza kill 13 people, mostly women and children
https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/israel-hamas-war/article/israeli-strikes-on-gaza-kill-11-people-mostly-women-and-children/
Israeli strikes overnight and into Sunday killed 13 people in the Gaza Strip, mostly women and children, according to local health officials.
Two of the strikes hit tents in the southern city of Khan Younis, each killing two children and their parents, according to Nasser Hospital, which received the bodies. Another five people were killed in strikes elsewhere, according to hospitals.
...
The UN and aid groups say food and other supplies are running low and hunger is widespread.
Children carrying empty bottles raced after a water tanker in a devastated area of northern Gaza on Sunday. Residents of the built-up Shati refugee camp said the water was brought by a charity from elsewhere in Gaza. Without it, they rely on wells that are salty and often polluted.
“I am forced to drink salty water, I have no choice,” said Mahmoud Radwan. “This causes intestinal disease, and there’s no medicine to treat it.”
There is suffering everywhere you look, says mother of emaciated baby girl trapped in Gaza
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/may/11/there-is-suffering-everywhere-you-look-says-mother-of-emaciated-baby-girl-trapped-in-gaza
Siwar Ashour, born in November, has only known war. Her mother, Najwa Aram, 23, gave birth in the one surviving room of a house that was otherwise destroyed and which 11 other people were sharing
Siwar Ashour was born into war and hunger and has known nothing else. She is now in real danger of dying without ever having known a moment of peace or contentment.
The six-month-old Palestinian girl, whose painfully emaciated body symbolised the deliberate starvation of Gaza when she appeared on the BBC this week, was only 2.5kg when she was born on 20 November last year.
From birth, Siwar had a problem with her oesophagus that has made it hard for her to drink breast milk and left her dependent on specialised formula, which is in critically short supply.
Her parents’ home in al-Nuseirat, halfway up the coast on the Gaza Strip, was bombed earlier in the war, which began in October 2023 when Hamas killed 1,200 people in Israel, leading to an Israeli assault that has so far killed more than 52,000 people in Gaza. They lived in tents for a while but it was almost impossible to get food or water in the camp and it also came under Israeli fire.
They tried going back to al-Nuseirat to stay at Siwar’s grandparents’ home, but that was bombed, too. All that was left of the building was a single room, which they shared with 11 other people. That was where Siwar was born.
...
Dr Ahmed al-Farah, the director of the children’s and maternity building at the Nasser medical complex, said between five and 10 new malnutrition cases are being recorded there every day.
“We’re seeing severe cases. Malnutrition appears in children in a horrifying and extremely visible way,” Farah said. “We have nothing to offer them. They need proteins, but there are none. We try to provide a little milk, perhaps powdered milk, but we can’t offer anything more.
“On top of that, the severe overcrowding in hospitals leads to increased disease transmission among children,” he added.There is only enough fuel left at the Nasser complex to keep the generators going for another 48 hours. They have already had to shut off electricity on the administrative floors to make it last a little bit longer, but the power supply will soon have to be cut to the overcrowded patients’ wards.
“We are helpless in the face of their needs – we cannot provide food, supplements, medication, or vitamins appropriate for their conditions,” the doctor said. “I studied malnutrition in medical school textbooks. I used to think that study would remain theoretical, something we’d never see in real life. But now, those textbook descriptions have come to life before our eyes in Gaza,” Farah said.
“I call on the world to see us as human beings – we were created just like everyone else.”
