TEHRAN, December 23 (MNA) – Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church, has reiterated his condemnation of the “cruelty” of Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, where Palestinian children are being “machine-gunned” and civilian facilities bombed. “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 during his weekly mass on Sunday.

The remarks came a day after the pontiff denounced an Israeli airstrike that killed at least 25 Palestinians in Gaza, including seven children from the same family, in Jabalia in northern Gaza.

“Yesterday, children were bombed,” he said at the top of his annual Christmas address to the Vatican’s Catholic cardinals.

“This is cruelty.

This is not war.

I wanted to say this because it touches the heart.” Irked by the Pope’s comments, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman said they were “particularly disappointing.” Pope Francis has repeatedly called for a ceasefire in Israel’s bloody aggression on the besieged Gaza Strip.

In his book published recently, he called for scrutiny over whether the situation in Gaza “corresponds to the technical definition” of genocide.

Israel unleashed its brutal Gaza onslaught on October 7, 2023, after the Hamas resistance group carried out its historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

So far, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 45,259 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 107,627 others.

During its bloody onslaught, Israel has targeted Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, such as schools and hospitals, in blatant violation of international law.

AMK/PressTV