The humanitarian needs were already huge without Covid and without the aggression,” Bassam Nasser, who leads the Gaza office for Catholic Relief Services, told America on May 20. “You can imagine, when you add those two challenges, the crisis will become huge.”

This week on “Inside the Vatican,” veteran Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell and host Colleen Dulle take a look at Pope Francis’ goals for the region and where they have been stalled in the past.

Pope Francis today expressed his “very great concern” at the armed clashes in Gaza and Israel and made an urgent, passionate appeal “to those with the responsibility” to bring a ceasefire and “to walk the path of peace.”

I refuse the logic that insists that, by saying the occupation must end, I am with the Palestinians and against the Israelis. There is a third place, which is not “for” or “against,” and that is the place of love, a love rooted in justice.

Christian leaders in the Holy Land expressed deep concern over growing Israeli-Palestinian violence, as the two sides clashed in Jerusalem and Israel launched airstrikes into Gaza, responding to rocket attacks.

Pope Francis: “I pray that Jerusalem may be a place of encounter and not of violent clashes, a place of prayer and of peace.”