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ROME: Pope Leo XIV demanded Wednesday that Israel stop the “collective punishment” and forced displacement of Palestinians in Gaza as he pleaded for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in the besieged territory amid preparations by Israel for a new military offensive.
Leo was interrupted twice by applause as he read aloud his latest appeal for an end to the 22-month war during his weekly general audience attended by thousands of people in the Vatican’s auditorium.
History’s first American pope also called for the release of hostages taken by Hamas in southern Israel — 50 of them remain in Gaza — and for both sides and international powers to end the war “which has caused so much terror, destruction and death.”
“I beg for a permanent ceasefire to be reached, the safe entry of humanitarian aid to be facilitated and humanitarian law to be fully respected,” Leo said. He cited international law requiring the obligation to protect civilians and “the prohibition of collective punishment, indiscriminate use of force and the forced displacement of the population.”
Palestinians in Gaza are bracing for an expanded offensive promised by Israel in some of the territory’s most populated areas including Gaza City, where famine has been documented and declared.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will launch its Gaza City offensive while simultaneously pursuing a ceasefire, though Israel has yet to send a negotiating team to discuss a proposal on the table. He has said the offensive is the best way to weaken Hamas and return hostages, but hostages’ families and their supporters have pushed back, saying it will further endanger them.
Hamas took 251 hostages on Oct. 7, 2023, in the attack that also killed about 1,200 people and triggered the war. Most hostages have been released during previous ceasefires or other deals. Israel has rescued eight hostages alive. Of the 50 still in Gaza, Israeli officials believe around 20 are still alive.
Leo drew attention to a joint statement by the Latin and Greek Orthodox patriarchs of Jerusalem, who announced that the priests and nuns in the two Christian churches in Gaza City would stay put, despite Israeli evacuation orders ahead of the Gaza City offensive. They said the people sheltering in the churches were too weak and malnourished to move and that doing so would be a “death sentence.”
The Holy Family Catholic church and the Saint Porphyrius Orthodox church have sheltered hundreds of Palestinian civilians during the war, including elderly people, women and children as well as people with disabilities. Pope Francis, even during his final days in the hospital, stayed in daily touch with the parish priest of Holy Family to offer his solidarity and support to the people there, cared for by the nuns of Mother Teresa’s Sisters of Charity religious order.
In their joint statement, Catholic Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III noted that just last weekend, Leo issued a strong statement about the rights of people to remain in their homelands and not be forced to move.
“All peoples, even the smallest and weakest, must be respected by the powerful in their identity and rights, especially the right to live in their own lands; and no one can force them into exile,” Leo said in comments Saturday to a group of forced refugees from the Indian Ocean archipelago Chagos that were clearly destined for a broader audience.
Netanyahu has said Gaza’s population should be relocated to other countries through what his government has described as voluntary emigration. Rights groups have objected, and Palestinians fear that even if they leave temporarily to escape the war, Israel will never allow them to return.

GAZA: The Israeli military pressed operations around Gaza City on Wednesday, as President Donald Trump prepared to host a White House meeting on post-war plans for the shattered Palestinian territory.
Israel is under mounting pressure both at home and abroad to end its almost two-year campaign in Gaza, where the military is preparing to conquer the territory’s largest city and the United Nations has declared a famine.

A spokesman for the Israeli military said Wednesday the evacuation of Gaza City was “inevitable” as the army prepares to conquer the Palestinian territory’s largest city.
“The evacuation of Gaza City is inevitable, and therefore, every family that relocates to the south will receive the most generous humanitarian aid, which is currently being worked on,” the military’s Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on X.
Mediators have circulated a draft ceasefire and hostage release deal which has been accepted by Palestinian militant group Hamas. But Israel has yet to give an official response.
On the ground, the Israeli military said its troops were “operating on the outskirts of Gaza City to locate and dismantle terror infrastructure sites above and below ground.”
Residents of the Zeitoun neighborhood of the city spoke of heavy Israeli bombardment overnight.
“Warplanes struck several times, and drones fired throughout the night,” Tala Al-Khatib, 29, told AFP by telephone.
“Several homes in Zeitoun were blown up. We are still in our house — some neighbors have fled, while others remain. But wherever you flee, death follows you,” she said.
Abdel Hamid Al-Sayfi, 62, said he hadn’t gone outdoors since Tuesday afternoon.
“Whoever steps outside is fired upon by the drones,” he told AFP by telephone.
“My phone battery is about to die, and once it does, we will lose all contact. Our fate is unknown.”
Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed on Friday to destroy Gaza City if Hamas does not agree to end the war on Israel’s terms.
It came after the defense ministry approved the military’s plan to seize the city and authorized the call-up of roughly 60,000 reservists.
It also came as the United Nations officially declared a famine in Gaza governorate, including Gaza City, that it blamed on “systematic obstruction of aid” by Israel.
As pressure builds on Israel to wrap up its offensive, Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said the US president would host top officials at the White House on Wednesday to thrash out a detailed plan for post-war Gaza.
“We’ve got a large meeting in the White House tomorrow, chaired by the president, and it’s a very comprehensive plan we’re putting together on the next day,” Witkoff said on Fox News, without offering more details.
Trump stunned the world earlier this year when he suggested the United States should take control of the Gaza Strip, clear out its inhabitants and redevelop it as seaside real estate.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the proposal, which sparked an outcry in Europe and the Arab world.

HOSTAGE PROTESTS
As Israel’s security cabinet convened on Tuesday evening, tens of thousands of protesters massed in commercial hub Tel Aviv to demand an end to the war and a deal to return the hostages.
Afterwards, Netanyahu declined to be drawn on what had been decided. “But I will say one thing: it started in Gaza and it will end in Gaza. We will not leave those monsters there,” he said.
Netanyahu last week ordered immediate talks aimed at securing the release of all remaining captives, while also doubling down on the plan to seize Gaza City.
That came days after Hamas said it had accepted the latest ceasefire proposal put forward by mediators, which would see the staggered release of hostages over an initial 60-day period in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
In Doha on Tuesday, Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari told a regular news conference that mediators were still “waiting for an answer” from Israel.
The war was sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 attack, which resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Out of 251 hostages seized during the attack, 49 are still held in Gaza, including 27 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 62,819 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.