HONG KONG UCAN): “Stop the clamour of arms!” Pope Francis said on May 16 as escalating violence between Israel and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip threatened to degenerate “into a spiral of death and destruction” Vatican News reported.
The pope appealed “in the name of God” for calm in the Holy Land, after days of fighting that has left scores of people dead and hundreds more wounded.
The deaths of dozens of children were particularly “terrible and unacceptable,” the pope said, lamenting that “their death is a sign that people do not want to build the future, but to destroy it.”
United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, said he was “dismayed” by the rising number of civilian casualties, CNN reported. “The secretary-general reminds all sides that any indiscriminate targeting of civilian and media structures violates international law and must be avoided at all costs,” the statement said.
Pope Francis urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders “to stop the clamour of arms and to walk the path of peace, with the help of the international community.”
On May 20, CNN reported that Hamas officials said a ceasefire could be imminent, “possibly within 24 hours.” this following growing international pressure on both sides to end the fighting. The the Palestinian death toll stood at more than 220 people—including more than 60 children—and 12 people in Israel, including two children, as at early May 20.
