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Official: Iraqi Oil Minister Stable after Surgery in US

FILE PHOTO: Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs and Minister of Oil, Hayan Abdul Ghani Al-Swad, attends a signing ceremony of the Gas Growth Integrated Project (GGIP) in Baghdad, Iraq, July 10, 2023. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs and Minister of Oil, Hayan Abdul Ghani Al-Swad, attends a signing ceremony of the Gas Growth Integrated Project (GGIP) in Baghdad, Iraq, July 10, 2023. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani/File Photo
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Official: Iraqi Oil Minister Stable after Surgery in US

FILE PHOTO: Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs and Minister of Oil, Hayan Abdul Ghani Al-Swad, attends a signing ceremony of the Gas Growth Integrated Project (GGIP) in Baghdad, Iraq, July 10, 2023. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister for Energy Affairs and Minister of Oil, Hayan Abdul Ghani Al-Swad, attends a signing ceremony of the Gas Growth Integrated Project (GGIP) in Baghdad, Iraq, July 10, 2023. REUTERS/Thaier Al-Sudani/File Photo

Iraqi oil minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani is in stable condition after receiving emergency heart surgery during an official visit to the United States, an oil ministry official who is part of the Iraqi delegation said on Saturday.

Abdel-Ghani arrived in the US earlier this week on a trip aimed at courting US companies to invest in Iraq’s energy sector.

The oil ministry official told Reuters he fell ill and was rushed to hospital during the trip and underwent heart catheterization surgery.

"He’s out from the operating theater and is in a stable condition," the official said.

Abdel-Ghani and other oil ministry officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

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Pope Calls Gaza Airstrikes 'Cruelty'

A Palestinian mourns as he carries the shrouded body of a child, killed in an Israeli strike the previous night, during a funeral in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on December 21, 2024, as the war between Israel and Hamas militants continues. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A Palestinian mourns as he carries the shrouded body of a child, killed in an Israeli strike the previous night, during a funeral in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on December 21, 2024, as the war between Israel and Hamas militants continues. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
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Pope Calls Gaza Airstrikes 'Cruelty'

A Palestinian mourns as he carries the shrouded body of a child, killed in an Israeli strike the previous night, during a funeral in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on December 21, 2024, as the war between Israel and Hamas militants continues. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
A Palestinian mourns as he carries the shrouded body of a child, killed in an Israeli strike the previous night, during a funeral in Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on December 21, 2024, as the war between Israel and Hamas militants continues. (Photo by Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)

Pope Francis on Saturday again condemned Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, a day after an Israeli government minister publicly denounced the pontiff for suggesting the global community should study whether the military offensive there constitutes a genocide of the Palestinian people.

Francis opened his annual Christmas address to the Catholic cardinals who lead the Vatican's various departments with what appeared to be a reference to Israeli airstrikes on Friday that killed at least 25 Palestinians in Gaza, Reuters reported.

"Yesterday, children were bombed," said the pope. "This is cruelty. This is not war. I wanted to say this because it touches the heart."

The pope, as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Roman Catholic Church, is usually careful about taking sides in conflicts, but he has recently been more outspoken about Israel's military campaign against Palestinian militant group Hamas.

In book excerpts published last month, the pontiff said some international experts said that "what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide.”

Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli sharply criticized those comments in an unusual open letter published by Italian newspaper Il Foglio on Friday. Chikli said the pope's remarks amounted to a "trivialization" of the term genocide.

Francis also said on Saturday that the Catholic bishop of Jerusalem, known as a patriarch, had tried to enter the Gaza Strip on Friday to visit Catholics there, but was denied entry.

The patriarch's office told Reuters it was not able to comment on the pope's remarks about the patriarch being denied entry.