Pope Leo XIV condemns Israeli attack on Gaza's Catholic church, calls for an end to 'barbarity of war'

After an Israeli attack on Gaza's only Catholic church killed three people on Thursday, Pope Leo XIV expressed his deep sorrow, appealing for an end to the "barbarity of war", AL Jazeera reported. He urged the international community to "observe humanitarian law and respect the obligation to protect civilians". 

"As well as the prohibition of collective punishment, of indiscriminate use of force and forced displacement of the population," he added. Among those killed were the parish's 60-year-old janitor and an 84-year-old woman who was receiving psychosocial support inside a Caritas tent in the church compound, according to the Catholic charity Caritas Jerusalem.

Israeli attacks across Gaza on Thursday killed at least 32 Palestinians, including 25 in Gaza City alone, as per AL Jazeera. Meanwhile, Gaza's Health Ministry said that at least 130 people have been killed and 495 wounded by Israeli attacks in the past 24 hours.

That brings the death toll since the start of Israel's war to 58,895, with 140,980 people wounded. According to AL Jazeera, in the last two years, as well as its war on Gaza and increasingly violent occupation of the West Bank, Israel has launched attacks on Iran, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.

The most recent attacks on Syria were launched this week, going so far as to hit the country's Ministry of Defence. The Israelis point to their justifications for the attacks on Syria, principally, in Israel's telling, to defend the Syrian Druze minority. In Lebanon, Israel claimed it wanted to stop the threat posed by Hezbollah.

The attacks on Iran, it said, were to end that country's attempt to build a nuclear bomb. And in Yemen, Israel's bombing was a response to attacks from the country's Houthi rebels.

With inputs from ANI