A photo made available by the Vatican Media shows Pope Francis (L) meeting with family members of Palestinians who are currently living through the war in Gaza at the Vatican on Nov. 22, 2023. (Credit: AFP)
Pope Francis met with relatives of Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and Palestinians who have family in Gaza, in two separate occasions Wednesday, and warned against a "mountain of death" in the Hamas-Israel war.
"Let us pray for peace in the Holy Land. Let us pray that the controversies will be resolved through dialogue and negotiation, and not by a mountain of deaths on both sides," he said in a video appeal for peace in the world and in the Middle East.
This message was published after he received in the morning "a delegation of Israelis who have family members hostage in Gaza and another of Palestinians," he explained at the end of his Wednesday general audience at the Holy See.
An agreement was reached under the aegis of Qatar for the release of 50 hostages in the hands of Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and a four-day truce in the Gaza Strip.
"They are suffering so much, I have heard how much they are all suffering. That's what wars do", he continued.
"But here, we have gone beyond wars, this is not war, this is terrorism", added the Pontiff, without specifying whether he was referring to Hamas' bloody Oct. 7 attack or to Israel's relentless bombardment of the besieged Gaza Strip that followed, or to both.
The Vatican said last week the pope hoped to show his "spiritual closeness" during the private meetings, which it said would be "exclusively humanitarian in nature."
Rachel Goldberg, whose 23-year-old son Hersh Goldberg-Polin was taken hostage by Hamas, told a press conference after the meeting that the pope "has a lot of influence."
"He's very respected in the Muslim world, in the Jewish world, really irrespective of religious background. So I think that when he speaks the world really listens," she told journalists in Rome.
The delegation was calling for the Red Cross to be allowed access to the hostages and "we feel the Holy Father has the influence in the world to make those things happen," she said.