Newsman: Pope Francis has branded Israel’s sweeping strikes on Lebanon this week a “terrible escalation” in its hostilities with Hezbollah as he called for the international community to work to bring the violence to an end.
Speaking at his weekly general audience at the Vatican, the pope, not name Israel outright, but said he was “saddened by news from Lebanon in recent days that bombardments have caused much destruction and many victims.”
“I express my closeness to the Lebanese people, who have already suffered too much in the recent past,” he said, with Lebanon still reeling from a series of crises.
“Let us pray for peace,” he said, adding that the world should not “forget tormented Ukraine, Myanmar, Palestine, Israel, Sudan, all the suffering peoples.”
