Pope Leo XIV renewed his call for an urgent ceasefire in Gaza on Thursday during a private meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog at the Vatican, even as Gaza’s civil defence reported that fresh Israeli strikes had killed at least 44 people.
The Vatican said the discussions focused on the “tragic situation in Gaza,” with Pope Leo urging unimpeded humanitarian access, the liberation of remaining hostages, and full respect for international humanitarian law.
He reiterated his long-standing position that “a two-state solution is the only way out of the current war.” The pair also touched on the wider situation in the West Bank and the sensitive status of Jerusalem, while affirming the “historical value” of ties between the Vatican and Israel.
Meanwhile in Gaza City, where the Israeli military has intensified bombardments ahead of a planned offensive, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said a strike hit a tent sheltering a displaced Palestinian family on Thursday, killing five people, including three children.
At Al-Shifa Hospital, bodies wrapped in white shrouds lined the morgue floor. In Tel al-Hawa, west of Gaza City, residents described scenes of panic.
“My children and I were sleeping in the tent when we heard the sound of bombing. Shrapnel fell on us, and my four children started screaming,” said Israa al-Basous, whose shelter stood next to the one that burned.
The civil defence agency said 25 of the 44 people killed on Thursday were in Gaza City, with another seven, including three children, killed in an air strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp further south.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean that journalists are unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.
Nearly one million people are estimated to live in and around Gaza City, where the UN has declared famine conditions. Israeli officials have said the planned offensive could displace another million Palestinians.
Israel’s war in Gaza began after Hamas’s October 2023 attack that killed 1,219 people in Israel, mostly civilians. Since then, Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 64,231 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry figures cited by the UN, with most victims reported as civilians.