Pope Francis mentioned his meeting this November 22 with Israeli relatives of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza, and with Palestinians who have relatives imprisoned in Israel.
After the general audience, he urged the faithful not to forget to "persevere in prayer for those who suffer because of wars in so many parts of the world, especially for the dear people of the martyred Ukraine and Israel and Palestine."
Then he spoke of his meeting.
"They suffer so much and I heard how they both suffer," he said. "Wars do this, but here we have gone beyond wars, this is not wars, this is terrorism. Please, let's go forward for peace, pray for peace, pray so much for peace."
Let the Lord put his hand there, let the Lord help us to solve the problems and not go forward with passions that eventually kill everybody. We pray for the Palestinian people, we pray for the Israeli people, that peace will come.
