Pope Francis & La Salle join appeals for ceasefire
On Oct. 7, 2023, Palestinian Hamas militants based in the Gaza Strip entered southern Israel in an unprecedented attack that resulted in approximately 1,400 Israeli deaths. According to Israeli authorities, most of the casualties were civilians. As a result, Israel declared war on Hamas. The tragedy, however, is that Israel started bombing the whole of the Gaza Strip and the main casualties were the civilian population and not Hamas.
More than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed as a result of this indiscriminate bombing. The most tragic part is that more than 4,200 of these more than 10,000 casualties were children.
There is now a growing demand for a ceasefire of hostilities in Gaza. Understandably, all the Muslim countries have led this demand. However, this demand has been joined by other countries including France, a major ally of the United States, and other countries especially in Latin America.
In the United Nations, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called Gaza a graveyard for children. The heads of all the 18 major UN agencies issued a rare joint statement expressing outrage at the civilian death toll in Gaza and calling for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas. The UN statement said: “… an entire population is besieged and under attack, denied access to the essentials for survival, bombed in their homes, shelters, hospitals and places of worship. This is unacceptable.”
Pope Francis issued a plea for a ceasefire in the Holy Land during his Nov. 5 Sunday Angelus at St. Peter’s Square:
“Dear brothers and sisters!
“I continue to think about the serious situation in Palestine and in Israel where many, many people have lost their lives. In God’s name, I beg you to stop: cease using weapons! I hope that avenues will be pursued so that an escalation of the conflict might be absolutely avoided, so that the wounded can be rescued and help might get to the population of Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is extremely serious. May the hostages be freed immediately. There are also many children among them – may they return to their families! Yes, let’s think of the children, of all the children affected by this war, as well as
