Pope Leo XIV leads the Angelus prayer in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, July 20, 2025. REUTERS/Yara Nardi
“I appeal to the international community to observe humanitarian law and respect the obligation to protect civilians as well as the prohibition of collective punishment, the indiscriminate use of force, and the forced displacement of populations,” the pope added.
The shelling of the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza also damaged the church compound, where hundreds of Palestinians have been sheltering from the Israel-Hamas war, now in its 21st month. Israel expressed regret over what it described as an accident and said it was investigating.
An Israeli organisation has said, "The Israeli regime enacts in all the territory it controls, Israeli sovereign territory, East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, an apartheid regime."
"Apartheid was a system of racial segregation and discrimination enforced in South Africa from 1948 to 1994. It was a legal system that enforced racial segregation and political and economic discrimination against the non-white majority population.
The system classified people into racial groups (white, black, colored, and Asian) and restricted their rights and opportunities based on their racial classification."
In a Six-Day War in 1967, Israel captured the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, and gained sole control of Jerusalem.
"How Netanyahu Prolonged the War in Gaza to Stay in Power Secret meetings, altered records, ignored intelligence: the inside story of the prime minister’s political calculations since Oct. 7."
According to The New York Times: "Six months into the war in the Gaza Strip, Benjamin Netanyahu was preparing to bring it to a halt. Negotiations were underway for an extended cease-fire with Hamas, and he was ready to agree to a compromise.
"He had dispatched an envoy to convey Israel’s new position to the Egyptian mediators. Now, at a meeting at the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, he needed to get his cabinet onboard. He had kept the plan off the meeting’s written agenda. The idea was to reveal it suddenly, preventing resistant ministers from coordinating their response."
The Israeli pm during final meeting with Donald Trump in early in July 2025. He is a convicted felon with his wife. He is hoping that he will win the Israeli national polls in 2026.
"Since its establishment in 1948, the United States has provided Israel with significant financial and military aid, totalling over $300 billion in today's dollars.
Initially, aid focused on economic assistance for resettlement and development, but by the 1970s, it shifted primarily to military aid. This aid has helped Israel develop a strong military, particularly in areas like missile defense, and has fostered a strong security partnership between the two nations. "
https://usafacts.org/articles/how-much-military-aid-does-the-us-give-to-israel/
American politicians have for years criticised Israelis building on Palestinian land, but it is ignored.
This year, Palestinian houses have been bulldozed. It's common.
The United Nations human rights chief said in Geneva the situation "risks spiralling out of control" and he urged Israel to comply with international law.
But an extremist Ben-Gvir called for tougher action. "We must launch a military operation, bring down buildings, eliminate terrorists, not one or two but dozens and hundreds and if necessary thousands," he said.
Israel banned international journals from Geza.
The GHF, proposed by Israel as an alternative to the UN aid system in Gaza, has been almost universally condemned by rights groups for its violation of principles of humanitarian impartiality and what they have said could be complicity in war crimes.
“Up until 7 July, we’ve recorded now 798 killings, including 615 in the vicinity of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (United States), and 183 presumably on the route of aid convoys,” the UN spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva. "
The Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, was inevitable to bring a huge response in Israel. However, a wasteland, starvation and the deaths of children and women were avoidable.
