Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, concluded a three-day visit to Gaza, where he met with the local Christian community and celebrated Mass in the Church of the Holy Family, damaged days earlier in an Israeli airstrike. During his homily, the cardinal condemned the war as “senseless” and offered a message of solidarity: “You are not forgotten. You are in the hearts of all the Churches. We will do everything we can to stop this war, and in the end, we will succeed.”
The Mass was held amid ongoing shelling in nearby areas. “The first day is unsettling, then you get used to it. The closer blasts shake the building, but no one reacts anymore, not even us,” Pizzaballa told Vatican Media. “What you can’t see in pictures is the smell, the explosions leave a stench that lingers.”
He described Gaza as being in a state of collapse. “Compared to my previous visits, what strikes me now are the endless rows of tents along the coast. More than a million people are living without adequate shelter, without sanitation, without food.” Among children, he noted “exhaustion, of course, but also a will to live. As long as someone still wants to change things, there is life.”
The patriarch said most residents have no plans to leave. “Some will depart, yes, but the vast majority will stay. They don’t know where to go, and they don’t want to go. They had a home here. They want to rebuild it here.” He echoed the Pope’s recent words: “There will be no Riviera in Gaza. No forced transfers.”
While the cardinal was in the Strip, Israeli tanks entered the eastern and southern neighborhoods of Deir al-Balah for the first time since the war began. According to Israeli officials, the area is believed to be where some of the remaining hostages may be held. Local health sources said shelling hit residential buildings and mosques, killing at least three people and wounding several others.
In Khan Younis, an Israeli airstrike reportedly killed five people, including a couple and their two children. Gaza’s health ministry reported that at least 130 people had been killed and more than 1,000 injured in the past 24 hours, marking one of the deadliest days in recent weeks.
Authorities also raised the alarm over hunger-related deaths. Since the weekend, at least 19 people have died from malnutrition, health officials said.
Separately, Palestinian officials reported that an Israeli undercover unit arrested Dr. Marwan Al-Hams, head of Gaza’s field hospitals, during a raid near a Red Cross medical facility in the south of the Strip. A local journalist was killed and another injured during the operation. The International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed it had treated several wounded but declined to comment further.
The humanitarian crisis has intensified diplomatic activity. Pope Leo XIV spoke by phone with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday morning. According to the Holy See Press Office, the Pope reiterated “the obligation to protect civilians and sacred sites, the prohibition of indiscriminate use of force, and of the forced transfer of population.” The pontiff emphasized “the urgent need to ensure the entry of humanitarian aid” and marked the 10-year anniversary of the Holy See’s bilateral agreement with the State of Palestine.
A day earlier, during the Sunday Angelus, the Pope had called for “an end to the barbarity of war through a peaceful solution,” stressing that “collective punishment must not be allowed.”
“These were clear, strong, and much-needed words,” said Pizzaballa. “We have nothing against the Jewish people, and we don’t want to be seen as hostile toward Israeli society. But we must speak frankly. What this government is doing in Gaza cannot go unchallenged. Our criticism is a moral duty.”
He stressed that the Latin Patriarchate’s assistance is not limited to Christians. “We visited our community, as is our duty. But our efforts — Caritas, hospitals, humanitarian aid — are directed at everyone. When border crossings were still functioning, we reached more than 40,000 people, most of them Muslim. That’s always been our approach.”
The UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said in a post on X that it was receiving “desperate messages from staff in Gaza, where hunger is widespread.” The price of basic food has skyrocketed, increasing 40-fold, it said. “Meanwhile, we have enough food just outside Gaza to feed the entire population for three months. The siege must be lifted, and aid must be allowed in, safely and at scale.”
Israel’s military said it “views the transfer of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip as a matter of utmost importance and works to facilitate its entry in coordination with the international community.” But Gaza’s health ministry reported that at least 67 Palestinians were killed Sunday while waiting for UN aid convoys. The day before, 36 were killed under similar circumstances. The IDF claimed its troops fired “warning shots” in response to “an immediate threat” and disputed the casualty figures.
On Sunday, meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar confirmed he had ordered officials not to extend the visa of Jonathan Whittall, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the West Bank and Gaza, accusing him of “anti-Israel bias.” Whittall, who was based in Jerusalem and working between the capital and Gaza, came under criticism for recent remarks.
In March, Whittall had told a UN panel that the conditions around aid distribution points in Gaza were “created to kill,” describing the situation as “carnage. It is weaponized hunger. It is forced displacement. And it’s a death sentence for people just trying to survive.”
UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric confirmed last week that Israel has not renewed the visas of the heads of three UN agencies operating in Gaza — OCHA, UNRWA, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).
At a recent Security Council meeting, OCHA chief Tom Fletcher said conditions in Gaza were “beyond vocabulary,” with civilians being shot while searching for food and hospitals unable to function due to lack of fuel, medicine, and supplies. “Fifty-six percent of denied entries into Gaza in 2025 have been for emergency medical teams — frontline responders who save lives,” Fletcher said.
Israel’s mission to the UN responded that it was “reviewing the visa issue” and accused UN agencies of abandoning neutrality and operating with alleged ties to Hamas — an accusation that UNRWA has consistently denied.
The war began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas-led militants crossed into Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages. According to Gaza health authorities, Israel’s military campaign has since killed more than 59,000 Palestinians, displaced nearly the entire population, and plunged the enclave into a humanitarian disaster.
