(LifeSiteNews) — Pope Leo XIV affirmed that the Palestinian people have “the right to live in peace” on their “own land,” denounced increased Israeli settler terrorist attacks on Palestinian civilians in the West Bank, and lamented the “serious humanitarian crisis” that Israel is inflicting on the long-suffering people of the Gaza Strip.
“The Holy See is especially attentive to any diplomatic initiative that seeks to guarantee to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip a future of lasting peace and justice in their own land,” the pontiff said during a January 9 address to the Vatican’s Diplomatic Corps. These same rights belong “as well to the entire Palestinian people and the entire Israeli people.”
“In particular, the two-State solution remains the institutional perspective for meeting the legitimate aspirations for both peoples; yet, sadly, there has been an increase in violence in the West Bank against the Palestinian civilian population, which has the right to live in peace in its own land,” Pope Leo affirmed.
Though 157 of 193 (81.3%) member states of the United Nations formally recognize the State of Palestine, with around 185 nations (95.8%) calling for a two-state solution, the Israeli government has insisted such statehood will never happen as they continue to terrorize and expel the native Palestinian people from their ancestorial lands.
After several Israeli settler attacks on the Christian town of Taybeh last July, Catholic and Orthodox bishops as well as other Christian ecclesial community leaders assembled to condemn Israeli government officials for enabling and facilitating radical Zionist terrorist attacks on Christians and other Palestinians in the West Bank.
These prelates — including Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa — denounced “radical Israelis” from illegal “nearby settlements” and implored “Christians globally” to come to their defense with “prayers, attention and action.”
Three days later, the Israeli army fired a tank shell into the Holy Family Catholic Church compound in Gaza, killing at least three and injuring nine others. Pizzaballa publicly expressed doubts that it was a “mistake” as Israel claimed, while other sources affirmed Catholic Church officials suspected this was done as “a deliberate act of retaliation” for their earlier public statement in Taybeh.
READ: ‘Faith in a Time of Genocide’: Holy Land Christians call for solidarity, repudiation of Zionism
Holy Land prelates: ‘The people of Gaza’ must not be displaced ‘from the land of their ancestors’
During a White House press briefing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last February, President Donald Trump announced a plan for the U.S. to “take over” and “own” the Gaza Strip, including forcibly expelling around two million indigenous Palestinians who have lived in the region for centuries.
In voicing support for initiatives that seek to guarantee Palestinians in Gaza “a future of lasting peace and justice in their own land,” Pope Leo echoed the judgment of Christian prelates in the Holy Land who indirectly admonished Trump at the time, calling “the grave threat of mass displacement” an “injustice that strikes at the very heart of human dignity.”
“The people of Gaza, families who have lived for generations in the land of their ancestors, must not be forced into exile, stripped of whatever is left of their homes, their heritage, and their right to remain in the land that forms the essence of their identity,” the prelates wrote at the time.
Gaza humanitarian situation remains catastrophic
During remarks on Friday, Pope Leo also lamented that in Gaza, “despite the truce announced in October, the civilian population continues to endure a serious humanitarian crisis, adding further suffering to that already experienced.”
Reliable reports of Palestinians killed by the Israelis during the stated “ceasefire” is at least 442, including 1,240 being wounded. According to multiple sources, the Israelis have violated the truce close to 1,000 times, including the ongoing restrictions of humanitarian aid from entering the Strip and the ongoing destruction of thousands of buildings.
By all accounts, the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip remains catastrophic, with virtually the entire population of approximately two million requiring urgent assistance, with many living in makeshift tents subject to severe storms and pronounced cold, leading to deaths, including those of babies that have died from hypothermia.
Food insecurity continues to grip the region with 1.6 million people in Gaza still subject to acute food insecurity and malnutrition, and health facilities are barely functioning.
Don’t forget #Gaza.
Homes are still destroyed.
Humanitarian aid is still restricted.
UNRWA supplies are still completely blocked.
Hundreds of thousands are still forcibly displaced.
UNRWA is still working to support the people in Gaza.#UNRWAworks pic.twitter.com/ZT9U1v0AMV
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) January 1, 2026
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed at least 71,491 Palestinians in Gaza, including approximately 22,000 children at a confirmed minimum, with at least 171,318 people injured, including over 10,000 children who have lost at least one leg. These dead do not include around 10,000 who are missing and presumed dead and buried under the rubble.
READ: Israeli army shot thousands of Palestinians seeking food and later bulldozed corpses: report
According to a rationale presented in a Lancet study in July 2024, one can conservatively estimate total deaths, including indirect fatalities due to causes like starvation, lack of medicine or proper medical care, to include 357,455 (157,280 children).
‘Peace’ now means ‘asserting one’s dominion’
In his remarks, Pope Leo also criticized how “the meaning of words is ever more fluid, and the concepts they represent are increasingly ambiguous.”
“A diplomacy that promotes dialogue and seeks consensus among all parties is being replaced by a diplomacy based on force,” the first American pope said. “(P)eace is sought through weapons as a condition for asserting one’s own dominion. This gravely threatens the rule of law, which is the foundation of all peaceful civil coexistence.”
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