Pope Francis on Sunday repeated his call for ensuring access to humanitarian aid and a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, where the population is facing famine after nearly six months of Israeli attacks, Vatican News reported.

Stressing that the ongoing conflict is taking a heavy toll on the civilian population, particularly children, he added: “How much suffering we see in their eyes! With those eyes, they ask us: Why? Why all this death? Why all this destruction?”
“War is always a defeat and an absurdity,” the pontiff said.