The situation in the Gaza Strip is increasingly worrying and painful, the pope said, addressing Italian pilgrims
VATICAN CITY – In his first General Audience in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday (21 May), Pope Leo XIV appealed for “dignified humanitarian aid” to enter Gaza, and for a cessation of hostilities “whose price is paid by children, the elderly, and the sick.”
“I renew my heartfelt appeal to allow the entrance of dignified humanitarian aid to Gaza and to put an end to the hostilities whose heartbreaking price is being paid by children, the elderly and the sick,” the pope said.
In his remarks to Italian pilgrims, he said, “The situation in the Gaza Strip is increasingly worrying and painful.”
The Vatican said that around 40,000 people were on hand for the audience, which came just days after an estimated 200,000 people attended the inaugural Mass on Sunday for history’s first American pope.
Pope Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost of Chicago, who began the audience with a tour through the piazza in the popemobile, spoke in his native English, his fluent Spanish as well as the traditional Italian of the papacy.
The humanitarian emergency in Gaza is at a breaking point, according to international organisations. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), supported by the UN, has warned of an imminent famine.
According to aid agencies, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza has intensified as Israeli airstrikes on May 20 resulted in many deaths, including children, amid ongoing military operations that have killed tens of thousands of people since October 2023.
The United Nations has expressed concern for the unprecedented destruction of housing in Gaza.
