On Sunday, Pope Leo XIV said he was following the humanitarian crisis taking place in Gaza with “great concern,” saying the civilian population is being “crushed by hunger and continues to be exposed to violence and death.”

The pontiff was speaking after his Angelus in St. Peter’s Square, soon after the Israeli military began a limited pause in fighting in three populated areas of the Gaza Strip, saying these pauses would last 10 hours a day.

on Friday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that the starvation crisis is deepening across Gaza.

The UN press service said that out of 15 attempts to coordinate humanitarian movements inside Gaza on Thursday, four were outright denied, three were impeded, one was postponed and two others had to be cancelled by the organisers, with only five missions facilitated.

In his address, Pope Leo renewed his “heartfelt appeal for a ceasefire” and called for the release of hostages and full respect for humanitarian law.

The Gaza War broke out following an Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack by Hamas militants that left 1,200 Israelis dead and more than 250 taken as hostages.

Israel immediately launched a retaliatory offensive in Gaza to oust Hamas from leadership, with the subsequent conflict resulting in the deaths of over 70,000 people in Gaza, according to Palestinian estimates.

A peace deal made earlier this year has broken down, and Israel has increased its attacks on Gaza, killing thousands of people, most of them civilians.

“Every human person has an intrinsic dignity conferred on him or her by God himself: I urge the parties in all conflicts to recognize it and to stop any action contrary to it,” Pope Leo said on Sunday.

“I urge you to negotiate a future of peace for all peoples and to reject anything that could jeopardize it. I entrust to Mary, Queen of Peace, the innocent victims of conflicts and the rulers who have the power to put an end to them,” he said.

The World Food Program said in a statement that at least a third of Gaza’s population of nearly 2 million Palestinians were have not eaten for days and nearly half a million were enduring “famine-like” conditions.

Israel says it is prepared to end the war if Hamas surrenders, disarms and goes into exile, something the Islamist organization has refused to agree to. The State of Palestine says it wants to regain its control over the province, which it lost to Hamas in 2007.

The editorial manager for the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication, Andrea Tornielli, issued an editorial last week saying the Gaza War highlights how indispensable a solution to the Palestinian question has become.

“This is a solution that the Holy See has been persistently calling for over many decades, and which cannot happen without the active contribution of the international community, as well as the countries directly involved,” he said.

Noting that President Emmanuel Macron recently announced that France will recognise the State of Palestine, Tornielli recalled that the Holy See signed a basic agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) 25 years ago and ten years ago it signed a Comprehensive Agreement with the State of Palestine.

“This decision and recognition are consistent with the concern expressed by Popes since 1948 about the condition of the Holy Places and the fate of the Palestinian people,” he said.

“Immediately following the inhuman terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023, Pope Francis condemned the massacre and repeatedly called for the release of all hostages. At the same time, while recognising Israel’s right to defend itself, the Holy See repeatedly – and in vain – called for restraint in targeting the entire Palestinian population in Gaza, and also denounced the attacks by settlers against Palestinians living in the West Bank, a part of the State of Palestine. Unfortunately, this did not happen: In Gaza and beyond, there are attacks that cannot be justified and represent a slaughter that weighs on the conscience of all,” Tornielli said.

He said the international community cannot continue to stand by “while this massacre unfolds.”

The Vatican official said he hoped recent international meetings on the crisis recognize the urgency of a collective response to the suffering of the Palestinian people, and “will vigorously pursue a solution that finally guarantees them a state with secure, respected, and recognised borders.”

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