As tens of thousands of Palestinians were fleeing their homes while Israel launched a major new ground offensive in Gaza City, Pope Leo XIV expressed his “profound closeness to the Palestinian people in Gaza.”

They “continue to live in fear and survive in unacceptable conditions, forced once again to leave their lands,” he said to applause at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Sept. 17.

In a part of his message that appeared to be directed to the political and military leaders conducting this war, Pope Leo reminded them, “Before God Almighty, who commanded ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ and in the sight of all of human history, every person always has an inviolable dignity, to be respected and upheld.” 

He renewed his “appeal for a cease-fire”—as he has done several times before—and for “the release of hostages, and a negotiated diplomatic solution, fully respecting international humanitarian law.”

The American pope said all this as the situation continues to deteriorate, especially for the some 700,000 Palestinians in Gaza City, many of them under 18, as the Israeli military, following orders from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government, pushes forward into the city with tanks and remote controlled armored vehicles, after heavily bombing various parts of the city in the previous days.

Mr. Netanyahu has said the long-planned operation to occupy Gaza City is aimed at Hamas’s “last major stronghold.” 

While many parts of Gaza City were already destroyed during the war in 2023, about a million Palestinians had still returned to their homes, often in the rubble or in bombed-out buildings, according to the BBC.

The Israel Defense Forces estimated 350,000 people had fled the city by Sept. 16, the BBC reported. People were told to head south to a coastal part of the Gaza Strip.

The attack on the city is being carried out in contravention of international humanitarian law and is opposed by most countries in the world. On Monday, a United Nations commission of inquiry issued a report saying Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, something the Israeli government denies. Some 65,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli armed forces, including more than 18,000 children, since the war started following Hamas’s attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed some 1,200 Israelis. Hamas took 250 hostages, 20 of whom are believed to be still alive and held captive in Gaza.

Yesterday, Pope Leo spoke with Father Gabriel Romanelli, the Argentine-born parish priest of the Holy Family parish in Gaza City, which is caring for some 450 people, young and old, including disabled and very sick people. The pope expressed his closeness to them and assured them of his prayers. 

Father Romanelli together with two other priests and five nuns have decided to remain in the parish compound in defiance of the Israeli army’s orders to leave the city, saying they cannot do so because of the condition of many of the people they care for, and the fact that they have no place else to go to that is safe in this enclave, roughly the size of Philadelphia, that is home to 2.1 million Palestinians. Most Gazans have already been displaced more than once and are now surviving in tents with little food.

Pope Leo concluded his remarks by inviting all present at today’s audience “to join in my heartfelt prayer that a dawn of peace and justice may soon arise.”

Material from Catholic News Service was used in this report.

Gerard O’Connell is America’s senior Vatican correspondent and author of The Election of Pope Francis: An Inside Story of the Conclave That Changed History. He has been covering the Vatican since 1985.