Pope Francis is anxious. On the occasion of Easter, he shared his “deep concern over the attacks of recent days” in the Middle East, which he said threaten the “dialogue” between Israelis and Palestinians.
The violence in Jerusalem and the region “threatens the desired climate of trust and mutual respect necessary to resume dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians,” the Argentine pope said during his traditional “urbi et orbi” blessing, in front of some 100 000 faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square, in the Vatican.
This week has been marked by a new upsurge in violence in the Middle East, notably in the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, where the Israeli police intervened to dislodge Palestinian worshipers in the middle of the religious holiday season, arousing multiple international condemnations.
Israel also announced overnight from Saturday to Sunday that it had struck Syria in response to rocket fire towards the annexed part of the Golan Heights, after similar fire from neighboring Lebanon and the Gaza Strip in recent days.
The Israeli military claimed that the unclaimed fire from Lebanon was “Palestinian”, and most likely from the Islamist movement Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip. The UN and the European Union have condemned the shootings and called for restraint after this unprecedented escalation on the Israeli-Lebanese front since 2006.
Separately, two anti-Israeli attacks killed three on Friday: A car bombing in Tel Aviv claimed the life of an Italian and injured seven people, while two British-Israeli sisters were killed in a Palestinian attack. in the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
