Jabed Ahmed
The Independent / April 22, 2025
Pope Francis was usually careful about taking sides in conflicts, however, he campaigned for peace for the devastated enclave since the war began
Members of Gaza’s small Christian community have said they are “heartbroken” over the death of Pope Francis, who had called them every evening during the war.
The pope was an outspoken critic of Israel’s war in Gaza and used his final appearance to call for an immediate ceasefire to the “deplorable” conflict.
Francis, the first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church, died on Monday, aged 88, following a serious bout of double pneumonia earlier this year.
George Antone, 44, head of the emergency committee at the Holy Family Church in Gaza, said: “We lost a saint who taught us every day how to be brave, how to keep patient and stay strong. We lost a man who fought every day in every direction to protect this small herd of his.”
Francis called the only Catholic church in the strip, hours after the war in Gaza began in October 2023, Mr Antone said. It marked the start of what the Vatican News Service would describe as a nightly routine throughout the war.
He added the pope would make sure to speak not only to the priest but to everyone else in the room.
“We are heartbroken because of the death of Pope Francis, but we know that he is leaving behind a church that cares for us and that knows us by name, every single one of us,” Mr Antone added.
“He used to tell each one: I am with you, don’t be afraid.”
The pastor of the Holy Family parish, Reverend Gabriel Romanelli, told the Vatican News Service that Francis phoned a final time on Saturday night.
Palestinian writer and poet Mosab Abu Toha mourned the pope’s death, adding he was a “real man of peace”.
The Pope’s final Easter message
The pope did not preside over the Vatican’s Easter Mass but appeared at the end of the event for a twice-yearly blessing and message known as the “Urbi et Orbi”, to the city and the world.
In the final message before his death, the pontiff reiterated his call for a ceasefire in Gaza during a brief appearance on the main balcony of St Peter’s Basilica, adding the situation in Gaza was “dramatic and deplorable”.
The pope also called on Palestinian militant group Hamas to release its remaining hostages and condemned what he said was a “worrisome” trend of antisemitism in the world.
“I express my closeness to the sufferings … of all the Israeli people and the Palestinian people,” said the message read aloud by an aide.
“I appeal to the warring parties: call a ceasefire, release the hostages and come to the aid of a starving people that aspires to a future of peace,” it read.
The pontiff’s previous criticism of the war
Pope Francis was usually careful about taking sides in conflicts during his 12 years at the head of the Catholic Church. However, he campaigned for peace for the devastated enclave since the war began in October 2023.
Before a five-week hospital stay for pneumonia earlier this year, Francis had been ramping up criticism of Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip.
In a speech to diplomats in January, the pontiff called the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave “very serious and shameful”.
“We cannot in any way accept the bombing of civilians,” he said. “We cannot accept that children are freezing to death because hospitals have been destroyed or a country’s energy network has been hit.”
In December, Francis suggested the global community should study whether Israel’s offensive constitutes genocide of the Palestinian people. An Israeli government minister publicly denounced the pontiff for that suggestion.
How leaders in the region reacted to his death
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas mourned the pope as a loyal friend of the Palestinian people and a global advocate for peace and justice.
Mr Abbas highlighted in his mourning the Pope’s recognition of Palestine, his visit to Bethlehem, his prayers for peace at the separation wall, and his calls to end the war in Gaza.
“Today, we lost a faithful friend of the Palestinian people and their legitimate rights,” he said.
Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, said that Francis was a man of deep faith, peace and compassion who fostered ties with the Jewish world.
“I truly hope that his prayers for peace in the Middle East and for the safe return of the hostages (in Gaza) will soon be answered,” President Herzog said on X, formerly Twitter.
At the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, on the site where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected, the superior of the Latin community, Father Stephane Milovitch, said Francis had stood for peace.
“We wish that peace will finally come very soon in this land and we wish the next pope will be able to help to have peace in Jerusalem and in all the world,” he said.
The war was triggered by the Hamas-led 7 October attack on southern Israel in 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Since then, more than 51,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive, according to local health authorities.
Jabed Ahmed is a news reporter at The Independent
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Pope’s frequent calls to a Catholic church made him a revered figure in war-battered Gaza
Wafaa Shurafa & Bassem Mroue
AP / April 21, 2025
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip – In the last 18 months of his life, Pope Francis had a frequent evening ritual: He would call the lone Catholic church in the Gaza Strip to see how people huddled inside were coping with a devastating war.
That small act of compassion made a big impression on Gaza’s tiny Christian community and was why he was remembered at his death Monday as a beloved father figure in the beleaguered territory.
“I was deeply saddened. He was our biggest supporter after God,” said Suheil Abu Dawoud, a 19-year-old Christian in Gaza.
Francis “always healed our wounds and asked us to be strong,” he said. “He was always praying for us.”
In his last public appearance, Francis called for a ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas militant group. A fervent advocate of interfaith relations, he also urged Hamas to release the dozens of Israeli hostages it is holding and condemned growing global antisemitism.
In his Easter message, Francis expressed his “closeness to the sufferings of Christians in Palestine and Israel and to all the Israeli people and the Palestinian people.”
While noting the growing antisemitism, he added: “I think of the people of Gaza and its Christian community in particular, where the terrible conflict continues to cause death and destruction and to create a dramatic and deplorable humanitarian situation.”
The war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. Some 59 hostages remain in captivity, 24 of them believed to be alive.
Israel’s offensive has reduced much of Gaza to rubble and killed over 51,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people remain homeless.
Things have worsened over the past month since Israel ended a ceasefire and imposed a closure blocking all humanitarian aid into Gaza. Aid officials say thousands of children have become malnourished and most people have little more than one meal a day.
“I appeal to the warring parties: Call on a ceasefire, release the hostages and come to the aid of starving people that aspires to a future of peace!” Francis said in his final address.
That appeal also went unheeded. On Monday, Israel’s airstrikes killed at least 14 people, according to medical officials.
In Israel, the pope left a more complicated legacy. He was widely appreciated for his outreach to the Jewish people and tough stance against antisemitism. He also was an advocate for freeing the hostages, meeting with their families during the war.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog remembered Francis as a man of “deep faith and boundless compassion.”
“I truly hope that his prayers for peace in the Middle East and for the safe return of the hostages will soon be answered,” Herzog wrote on social media.
In the past year and a half of war, Francis became increasingly outspoken in his criticism of the Israeli military’s harsh tactics. A month into the war, he urged an investigation into whether Israel’s war amounted to genocide -– a charge Israel vehemently denies.
In December, Francis expressed his pain thinking of Gaza, “of such cruelty, to the machine-gunning of children, to the bombing of schools and hospitals. … How much cruelty!”
The next month, he called the ongoing humanitarian crisis “very serious and shameful.”
Francis was mourned throughout the Arab world and by U.N. officials, including Philippe Lazzarini, head of the agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA. He posted on X that the pope’s voice “has contributed to draw the attention to significant dehumanization of the war in Gaza & beyond.”
Senior Hamas official Basem Naim said Francis was a “steadfast advocate for the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, particularly in his unwavering stance against the war and acts of genocide perpetrated against our people in Gaza in recent months.”
The Holy Land’s Christian community has dwindled over the decades through emigration and a low birthrate and makes up just a small percentage of the overall population.
Only 1,000 Christians live in Gaza, an overwhelmingly Muslim territory, according to the U.S. State Department’s international religious freedom report for 2024. The report says the majority of Palestinian Christians are Greek Orthodox but they also include other Christians, including Roman Catholics.
Last year, Francis told CBS’ “60 Minutes” that he calls a priest daily at 7 p.m. at the Holy Family Church, the only Catholic church in Gaza, to hear what is happening to the nearly 600 people sheltering at the facility.
“The other day, they were happy because they managed to eat some meat. The rest of the time they eat flour, things made of flour,” Francis told the program. “Sometimes they go hungry and they tell me things. There is a lot of suffering.”
“It’s very tough. Very tough. The food arrives, people rush to get it,” he said.
The Rev. Gabriele Romanelli, a church official, said Francis’ last call came Saturday.
Suhair Anastas, a Palestinian woman who was part of a group that met Francis in 2023 after she fled Gaza, said she felt “great sadness” over his death.
Anastas, who is Greek Orthodox, had sheltered at the church compound in Gaza before she left.
“He did stand by us, by letting us stay at the church and by taking care of everyone in the church,” she said. “I know he wasn’t able to stop the genocide … but I don’t know who can.”
When she met the pope, Anastas had mixed emotions. The experience was “breathtaking,” she said, but she added she also felt traumatized, sad and guilty “that you’re meeting him and others are still under bombardment.”
She said she will remember the pope “for standing with us” to a certain extent, but “I wish he could have done more.”
George Antoun, an official at the church, told The Associated Press the pope’s interest gave the community hope and inspiration.
Francis was like a father worried for his children and would ask whether there was food, medical care and medicine, he said.
“He was with us step by step and day by day,” Antoun said.
“Don’t be afraid. I am with you and praying for you and I will protect you,” Antoun quoted Francis as saying. “He left a big inheritance in Gaza. He is the saint of Gaza.”
Bassem Mroue reported from Beirut; Associated Press writer Mariam Fam in Cairo contributed to this report
