Pope Francis is surrounded by bishops at the end of his weekly general audience at the Vatican on November 29. Massimo Valicchia/NurPhoto/Getty Images
At the end of October, Pope Francis spoke by phone with Israeli President Isaac Herzog about the war between Israel and Hamas.
The conversation between the two was described as a “tense phone call,” according to a Washinton Post report on Thursday, citing a senior Israeli official familiar with the call, which has not been previously reported.
Herzog told Francis about the unprecedented level of shock Israel felt after the Hamas attack on October 7, when the pope said bluntly that it was “forbidden to respond to terror with terror,” according to the Post, citing the Israeli officials.
A Vatican source confirmed to CNN on Friday that a phone call between the Israeli president and the pope took place in late October, but CNN could not verify whether Francis used the “terror” remarks.
In a statement to The Washington Post about the call, the Vatican said: “The call, like others on the same days, is related to the Holy Father’s efforts to contain the severity and scale of the conflict situation in the Holy Land.” .”
A few days after his telephone conversation with Herzog, the Pope spoke with the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, on November 2nd. On October 22, Francis called US President Joe Biden to discuss the war.
Some background information: The Pope has publicly described the war between Israel and Hamas as terrorism.
On November 22, during a general audience in St. Peter’s Square, Francis said: “This morning I received two delegations, one from Israelis whose relatives are hostages in Gaza and another from Palestinians whose relatives are suffering in Gaza. They suffer so much, and I have heard how they both suffer: wars do this, but here we have moved beyond war. This is not war; This is terrorism.”
The pope has repeatedly called for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war and is in regular contact with the Catholic community in Gaza.