The Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, announced this Friday that a meeting is being prepared between the Pope and the families of the hostages kidnapped by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on October 7, in the attack on Israel.
“We hope to be able to hold it (the meeting) as soon as possible,” Parolin said in statements to the press at the Italian embassy in the Vatican, on the sidelines of the event organized by the help line for child victims of violence Telephone Azzurro “Let’s break the silence”, about the abuse of minors.
According to the cardinal, “the release of the hostages is one of the fundamental points of the solution to the current problem, from the humanitarian point of view, of those who are there: women, men, children, babies, pregnant women.”
He also called for “a ceasefire” and “the arrival of help and care for the wounded”, which are, in his opinion, “the two main axes around which the solution to the problem must revolve.”
The Vatican official also condemned the Israeli army’s acts of war against hospitals in the Gaza Strip, arguing that “respect for hospitals and places of worship is a fundamental aspect of international humanitarian law.”
“There is no reason to use hospitals for any act of war,” he said, adding that, therefore, “the condemnation is total.”
The cardinal also referred to the hope, expressed repeatedly by Pope Francis, that a new Helsinki Conference will be convened, following the one in 1975 in which 35 Western countries signed the Helsinki Accords, to try to improve political of contention between West and East during the Cold War.
“Let’s wait, let’s wait!” exclaimed the Vatican Secretary of State, at the same time identifying a “positive sign” that occurred on Thursday with the meeting between the president of the United States, Joe Biden, and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping. , in San Francisco, in the US state of California.
For Parolin, this is “a step forward in relations between the United States and China” and progress in a situation of “generalized tension.”
On October 7, fighters from the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) – in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007 and classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel – carried out an attack on Israeli territory of dimensions unprecedented since the creation of the State of Israel in 1948, it left 1,200 dead, mostly civilians, around five thousand injured and more than 200 hostages.
In retaliation, Israel declared a war to “eradicate” Hamas, which began with food, water, electricity and fuel cuts in the Gaza Strip and daily shelling, followed by a ground offensive surrounding Gaza City.
The war between Israel and Hamas, which this Friday marked 42 days and continues to threaten to spread throughout the Middle East region, has so far left more than 11,500 dead in the Gaza Strip, mostly civilians, and 29,800 injured. 3,250 missing under the rubble and more than 1.6 million displaced, according to the latest report from local authorities.
Source: TSF
