POPE Francis urged combatants to lay down their arms and stop the attacks as conflict in Israel and Palestine reheats after a string of surprise attacks from Hamas.
At the end of his audience on Sunday, he said he was following the violence “with apprehension and sorrow”.
Like the fighting in Ukraine, the violence in Israel and Palestine was being accessed by millions as it was posted straight to social media.
Pope Francis urged Catholics to take up the rosary.
He called on Catholics to pray through the intercession of Mary “for the gift of peace for the many countries of the world marked by war and conflict”.
Surprise attacks
A Hamas surprise attack began in Israel on Saturday morning.
A series of rocket attacks, a barrage of at least 3000 rockets, preceded incursions by Hamas militants into Israel’s borders.
Footage posted to social media showed construction equipment like excavators being rammed into the Gaza-Israel Barrier that separates Palestine and Israel.
Other images showed Hamas militants airdropping over the border.
The attack coincided with the start of the observance of the Jewish holiday, Simchat Torah.
Once inside the borders, the Hamas militants killed many people indiscriminately and took hostages, piling them into vehicles and driving them across the border.
Israel reacted to the attacks by fighting back in southern Israel and launching airstrikes in Gaza.
Israeli military official Daniel Hagari told reporters on Sunday morning that “hundreds of terrorists” had been killed during fighting in Gaza and southern Israel, the Associated Press reported.
On Saturday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is “at war”.
Death toll rising
As emergency workers attended sites of the attacks and retaliatory strikes, the death toll rose.
Footage appeared on social media of a massacre at a music festival in Re’im, where 260 people had been killed by Hamas militants after they crossed the border.
The rocket strikes and gunfights launched in retaliation had killed at least 500 Palestinians.
In an appeal at the end of his Sunday Angelus address, Pope Francis said that “terrorism and war do not bring any solution, but only death and suffering for many innocent people. War is a failure. Every war is a failure”.
He said he is close to the families of the victims and called for prayers “that there will be peace in Israel and Palestine”.
The head of the Catholic Church in Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, called for a de-escalation of the situation in a statement on October 7.
“The continuing bloodshed and declarations of war remind us once again of the urgent need to find a lasting and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in this land,” he said.
