Pope says Israel’s bombing of children in Gaza is ‘cruelty … not war’

Pope Francis has condemned Israeli air strikes in Gaza, a day after an Israeli government minister publicly denounced the pontiff for suggesting the global community should study whether the military offensive there constitutes a genocide of the Palestinian people.

The pope opened his annual Christmas address with what appeared to be a reference to Israeli air strikes on Friday that killed at least 25 Palestinians in Gaza.

“Yesterday, children were bombed,” he said. “This is cruelty. This is not war. I wanted to say this because it touches the heart.”

Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli sharply criticised the pontiff in an open letter published by the Italian newspaper Il Foglio. Chikli said the pope’s remarks amounted to a “trivialisation” of the term genocide.

The pontiff, as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Roman Catholic Church, usually remains neutral in conflicts but has become increasingly outspoken about Israel’s war on Gaza. In book excerpts published last month, the pontiff said international experts said that “what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry condemns Pope’s Christmas address

Israel’s Foreign Ministry has condemned Pope Francis’s annual Christmas address to The Vatican today, in which he said the Israeli strike on Gaza on Friday that killed at least 25 people was “cruelty … not war”.

“In response to the Pope’s statement today: 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, by terrorists and abusing them. Unfortunately, the Pope has chosen to ignore all of this,” the ministry wrote on X.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 45,227 Palestinians and wounded 107,573 since October 7, 2023.

More on the pope’s Christmas remarks on Gaza

In addition to criticising Israel’s attacks on Gaza as “cruelty”, Pope Francis also said Israeli authorities had refused to allow the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem to enter the war-torn enclave “as had been promised”.

The Israeli military, however, said Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa’s entry had been approved and he would enter Gaza on Sunday, barring any major security issues. Cardinal Pizzaballa had last visited Gaza in May this year, in what he described as a pastoral visit to the parish of the Holy Family.

Israeli authorities, who control all the entry points into Gaza, have denied people from entering and leaving the Strip, including journalists and human rights researchers.

‘Cruelty’: Pope doubles down on condemnation of Israeli attacks on Gaza

For the second time in as many days, Pope Francis has denounced the “cruelty” of the Israeli attacks on Gaza.

“And with pain I think of Gaza, of so much cruelty, of the children being machine-gunned, of the bombings of schools and hospitals. What cruelty,” he said after his weekly Angelus prayer.

‘No concern for Palestinian suffering’: Ex-official slams US’s Gaza policy

Mike Casey says he has never seen anything like it.

In fact, the former State Department official – who served as a deputy political counsellor at the US Office of Palestinian Affairs – described his experience as a diplomat in Jerusalem as a humiliation.

“It’s frankly embarrassing … to see just the way we give in to the demands of the Israeli government and continue to support what the Israeli government is doing even though we know it’s wrong,” Casey told Al Jazeera.

“And I’ve not seen that in any other country that I’ve served in.”

After four years in his post, Casey resigned in July over what he described as the US government’s unwavering support for Israel despite its devastating military campaign in the Gaza Strip.

His resignation – first reported by The Guardian newspaper this week – is the latest by a US official angered over President Joe Biden’s staunch military and diplomatic backing for Israel since the Gaza war began in October 2023.

Anti-Muslim hate crimes spike in Europe following Gaza war: Report

The European Islamophobia Report of 2023 says Israel’s war on Gaza has “functioned as a geopolitical catalyst of anti-Muslim racism in Europe”, with an increase in hate crimes and a rise in Islamophobic rhetoric and actions by European governments.

The report, which monitors 34 countries in Europe, said there has been a spike in the number of physical and verbal assaults on Muslims in the wake of the war, including in countries like Norway, Spain and Greece.

Several European governments have also framed pro-Palestine solidarity as terrorism, it said, and enforced restrictive measures, such as bans on demonstrations and fines on pro-Palestinian symbols.

In Germany, for instance, those publicly criticising Israel’s war in Gaza faced unprecedented media and political backlash, while in France, the government imposed fines of 135 euros ($140) for displaying items such as keffiyehs, certain attire, flags, or slogans associated with Palestinian solidarity, the report said.

In Denmark, too, the prime minister announced an investigation into whether pro-Palestinian protests promote terrorism and whether police and prosecutors should take action, it noted.

“No other political development has shaped the life of Muslims in 2023 as much as the war in Palestine,” it said. “While Palestine and Israel are primarily not a religious issue, part of the discourse has been to paint it as such and make the attack on Israel and the genocide of Palestinians into a war between two religious groups,” it said.

Opposition leaders accuse Netanyahu of sabotaging Gaza talks

Netanyahu’s political opponents have accused him of sabotaging negotiations to reach a captive-prisoner exchange deal with Hamas.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid, a former prime minister and leader of the Yesh Atid party, said the government has imposed new conditions.

“We have nothing left to achieve in Gaza; we need to start preparing for the day after the war and bring back 100 hostages,” he told the public broadcaster Kan.

“Once the war ends, we can return to Gaza and do what we need to do,” he said. “Now, we need to stop the war and finalise a deal to bring all the hostages back.”

Lapid said Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes in Gaza, does not want to end the war, fearing that it would lead to his government’s collapse.

Avigdor Lieberman, a former defence minister and leader of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, also criticised Netanyahu. He told the Maariv newspaper “the deal can be done”.

There was no immediate response from Netanyahu’s office.

70 percent of Jabalia camp’s buildings completely destroyed: Report

According to a report by Haaretz, which briefly had access to the camp in besieged northern Gaza, the number is an estimate by the Israeli army.

The Israeli daily said Jabalia refugee camp has become a “ghost town” during the Israeli army’s continuous attacks on the area.

None of the army’s other operations in Lebanon and other parts of Gaza “can compare, in the scale of the destruction, to what has happened over the last two and a half months” in the camp.

According to the army’s data, quoted by Haaretz, some 96,000 Palestinian civilians were forcibly displaced from the densely populated camp during the military’s operation.

The newspaper added, citing the army, that more than 2,000 Palestinians have been killed and roughly 1,500 have been arrested in the camp over the same period.

The army claims most of the people killed in the camp were armed, the report also said.

_{Rubble surrounds a home after it was hit in an Israeli attack on the Jabalia refugee camp on November 7}

That while less than 1.5% of the population were part of Hamas fighters, a fraction of that again involved in Oct 7.

Israeli forces attack second hospital in North Gaza

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that Israeli forces have opened fire on the al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia in northern Gaza. The attack comes amid a continuing assault on the Kamal Adwan Hospital in nearby Beit Lahiya.

Al Jazeera Arabic is reporting that wards at the hospital have been hit. The hospital is “under gunfire and shelling” by the Israeli military, our correspondent there said.

Israeli forces have killed at least 24 people since dawn today

Our colleagues on the ground in Gaza have been able to confirm at least 24 Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza so far today. Here’s a breakdown:

At Kamal Adwan Hospital, ‘loud explosions persist, shrapnel flying around’

Dr Hussam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in besieged northern Gaza, has issued another video statement from inside the facility, which has come under repeated Israeli attack.

Here’s what he said:

“I address you from inside the ICU department which was targeted by the Israeli army yesterday.

“The department came under a wave of shelling and direct gunfire. Both the gynaecology and maternity departments were directly impacted. As we speak, shelling on the hospital has not stopped. Since the early morning hours, the Israeli army has continued to pound the hospital’s yards and outer walls.

“Loud explosions persist and shrapnel is flying around, causing panic among the patients.

“We wonder why a medical facility is being pounded.

“We have demanded and still demand that the whole world provides us with the protection guaranteed under the Geneva Conventions, but the whole world still ignores us. All hospitals and medical staff are supposed to be protected under these conventions.

“Hospitals are still being targeted and medical staff slaughtered before the eyes of the whole world.

“Regretfully all our appeals have fallen on deaf ears.”

Israeli forces raid villages and towns across the West Bank

Our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic are reporting that Israeli forces have stormed a number of villages and towns across the occupied West Bank.

They included:

Syrian authorities appoint HTS figures as foreign, defence ministers

Syria’s new rulers have appointed a foreign and defence minister, the official Syrian news agency SANA reports, as they seek to build international relations two weeks after Bashar al-Assad was ousted.

The ruling General Command on Saturday named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told the Reuters news agency that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability”.

Murhaf Abu Qasra was named defence minister in the interim government, an official source told Reuters. Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, which led the opposition forces that forced out al-Assad.

Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar, reporting from Damascus, said Abu Qasra and al-Shibani were “very much close” to HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa. “This is raising questions whether HTS is forming its own government or Syria’s government,” he noted.

Al-Sharaa, Syria’s new de facto ruler, has actively engaged with foreign delegations since assuming power, including hosting the Syria envoy of the United Nations and senior United States diplomats.

He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.

Syrian opposition fighters seized control of Damascus on December 8, forcing President al-Assad to flee after more than 13 years of war and ending his family’s decades-long rule. Forces under the command of al-Sharaa have installed a three-month caretaker government.

Washington designated al-Sharaa a “terrorist” in 2013, saying al-Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing al-Assad. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10m bounty on his head.

The war killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times, and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.

Qatar opens embassy

Qatar reopened its embassy in Damascus on Saturday, 13 years after it was closed early in Syria’s war, as foreign governments seek to establish ties with the country’s new rulers.

Qatar becomes the second nation after Turkiye to officially reopen its embassy since al-Assad fled into exile. Doha sent a diplomatic delegation to Damascus several days ago to meet with the transitional government.

On Tuesday, the European Union said it was ready to reopen its diplomatic mission in Damascus. The French flag was raised over Paris’s embassy in Damascus on Tuesday although the country’s special envoy to Syria said the mission would remain closed “as long as security criteria are not met”.

Just nuke Israel...and pretend it was a mistake when Ben Shapiro ask.
All world terrorism, political extremism and all jihaddism will stop in .0 seconds cause lack of funding (YOUR funding, they suck public money from everyone in western world).
They did that when they killed lots of US soldiers in the USS Liberty in 1967, DURING 3 HOURS, in PERFECT daytime: They called it, "a mistake" and never payed for that.

Plus, you will save the real jews of the world from being emotionally blackmailed since 1946, threaten, used or even killed by those "israeli" evil squizo slavic criminals pretending to be semites and hebrews, when they are just eastern europeans fuckturds occupying Palestine with no reason and sense at all.
Like Benjamin Mileikowsky itself is (known as "Netanyahu" cause his crazy father faked its own family surname after WWII, to pretend he was a "semite", and not a polish nazi turd).