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Pope Calls Gaza Airstrikes ‘Cruelty’ after Israeli Minister’s Criticism

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’ after Israeli Minister’s Criticism

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.

"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 the Palestinian 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.

The Israeli military said on Saturday the patriarch's entry had been approved and he would enter Gaza on Sunday, barring any major security issues. Aid from the patriarch's office entered last week, the military said.

Israel allows clerics to enter Gaza and "works in cooperation with the Christian community to make it easier for the Christian population that remains in the Gaza Strip – including coordinating its removal from the Gaza Strip to a third country," a statement from the military said.

The war began when Hamas-led Palestinian fighters attacked southern Israeli communities on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel's retaliatory campaign, which it says is aimed at eliminating Hamas, has killed more than 45,000 people, mostly civilians, according to authorities in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. The campaign has displaced nearly the entire population and left much of the enclave in ruins.

Israel says that at least a third of the dead have been fighters and says it tries to avoid harm to civilians but is battling combatants who it accuses of embedding among the population in dense urban areas. Hamas rejects this. 

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Arab World

Israeli Military Says Suspect Neutralized in West Bank

A Palestinian woman (R) reacts as an Israeli soldier pushes a man while Palestinians are forcibly removed as they try to reach their land after Israeli settlers reportedly attacked local farmers working on their fields, spraying them with pepper spray, near the Palestinian village of Halhoul, south of the Israel-occupied West Bank city of Hebron, on April 17, 2026. October 2023. (Photo by HAZEM BADER / AFP)
A Palestinian woman (R) reacts as an Israeli soldier pushes a man while Palestinians are forcibly removed as they try to reach their land after Israeli settlers reportedly attacked local farmers working on their fields, spraying them with pepper spray, near the Palestinian village of Halhoul, south of the Israel-occupied West Bank city of Hebron, on April 17, 2026. October 2023. (Photo by HAZEM BADER / AFP)
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Israeli Military Says Suspect Neutralized in West Bank

A Palestinian woman (R) reacts as an Israeli soldier pushes a man while Palestinians are forcibly removed as they try to reach their land after Israeli settlers reportedly attacked local farmers working on their fields, spraying them with pepper spray, near the Palestinian village of Halhoul, south of the Israel-occupied West Bank city of Hebron, on April 17, 2026. October 2023. (Photo by HAZEM BADER / AFP)
A Palestinian woman (R) reacts as an Israeli soldier pushes a man while Palestinians are forcibly removed as they try to reach their land after Israeli settlers reportedly attacked local farmers working on their fields, spraying them with pepper spray, near the Palestinian village of Halhoul, south of the Israel-occupied West Bank city of Hebron, on April 17, 2026. October 2023. (Photo by HAZEM BADER / AFP)

Israel's military said Saturday that a suspected militant carrying a knife had been "neutralized" at a settlement in the occupied West Bank.

"Following the alert that was activated regarding a suspected terrorist infiltration in the community of Negohot, a terrorist armed with a knife was identified and neutralized," the Israeli military said in a statement, adding security forces were conducting a search of the area.

The statement said it had no reports of other injuries but did not provide details on who had neutralized the suspect or their condition.

Violence in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has risen sharply since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war.

According to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures, Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 1,050 Palestinians -- many of them militants, but also scores of civilians -- in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war.

Official Israeli figures say at least 45 Israelis, including soldiers and civilians, have also been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations.

Arab World

Lebanon Bets on US Pressure to Win Israeli Concessions

Displaced residents return to southern Lebanon (AFP)
Displaced residents return to southern Lebanon (AFP)
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Lebanon Bets on US Pressure to Win Israeli Concessions

Displaced residents return to southern Lebanon (AFP)
Displaced residents return to southern Lebanon (AFP)

US President Donald Trump announced a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel, opening the door to direct negotiations between the two sides.

Without a truce, the war between Israel and Hezbollah would remain open-ended, bringing more destruction and displacement to southern Lebanon.

But a ceasefire alone is not enough unless it runs in parallel with Lebanese-Israeli talks and can be extended to allow time for a deal, a ministerial source told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Trump’s move also satisfied Iran by involving it in the contacts that led to the truce, while aligning with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, who made a ceasefire a precondition for negotiations.

Washington brings Iran in

Washington drew Iran into the ceasefire in hopes of extracting concessions by pressing Hezbollah to uphold the truce and accept joining the government in direct talks, the source said.

The talks still face opposition from the Shiite duo, Hezbollah and Amal, despite mounting local and international pressure to unify behind a Lebanese delegation expected to be headed by former ambassador Simon Karam.

No meeting is expected soon between Aoun and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House under Trump’s sponsorship, at least during the ceasefire.

Any such meeting should seal a comprehensive agreement, not launch negotiations, the source said.

He added that there is no need to rush. The priority is for Washington to press Israel to offer incentives that could help secure a deal. Without that, a meeting would be meaningless as long as Israeli forces remain, residents are barred from returning south of the Litani River, Lebanese prisoners are held, and towns face systematic destruction.

Under such conditions, the source asked, would a meeting simply impose a reality rejected by Aoun, who insists the timing is wrong unless Israel shows goodwill on the ground toward ending its occupation.

Separating Iran from Lebanon

The source said a ceasefire is essential to start talks, but involving Iran does not mean Lebanon will tie its fate to Tehran’s negotiations with Washington, contrary to claims by a Shiite duo source.

That source suggested Lebanon would be part of a broader US-Iran settlement that could ease tensions, without explaining how this would reassure the Lebanese.

Washington’s outreach to Iran to help resume talks in Islamabad does not mean handing Lebanon’s file to Tehran, the source said, noting strong domestic, Arab and international opposition to linking the two tracks.

He questioned how Iran can negotiate directly with the United States while Lebanon is denied the same option in the absence of alternatives.

He also asked what alternative exists, and whether Lebanon can withstand another war after Hezbollah backed Gaza and Iran without returning to the government’s authority.

He raised doubts over how returning residents can be reassured, as areas south of the Litani have been devastated and are no longer fit for living.

Residents have the right to regain stability and ease fears about their future while awaiting reconstruction, which hinges on Hezbollah accepting the state’s monopoly on arms as a core item in negotiations. In return, Washington would need to secure Israel’s withdrawal and complete border demarcation in line with the armistice.

The question remains whether the Shiite duo will continue to reject direct talks overseen by Aoun, who insists on fully liberating the south.

That puts pressure on Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who has voiced reservations, as Aoun and international actors continue to seek a unified Lebanese position to prevent the ceasefire from unraveling.

Arab World

Aoun Says Future Deal Will Not Cede Lebanese Territory, Country No Longer ‘Arena for Anyone’s Wars’

A photograph released by the Lebanese Presidency on April 17, 2026, shows Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun delivering a televised address to the Lebanese people from the Baabda Presidential Palace, east of the capital Beirut. (Lebanese Presidency)
A photograph released by the Lebanese Presidency on April 17, 2026, shows Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun delivering a televised address to the Lebanese people from the Baabda Presidential Palace, east of the capital Beirut. (Lebanese Presidency)
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Aoun Says Future Deal Will Not Cede Lebanese Territory, Country No Longer ‘Arena for Anyone’s Wars’

A photograph released by the Lebanese Presidency on April 17, 2026, shows Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun delivering a televised address to the Lebanese people from the Baabda Presidential Palace, east of the capital Beirut. (Lebanese Presidency)
A photograph released by the Lebanese Presidency on April 17, 2026, shows Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun delivering a televised address to the Lebanese people from the Baabda Presidential Palace, east of the capital Beirut. (Lebanese Presidency)

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Friday that any future deal reached by the government would not cede any ‌territory or ‌undermine Lebanon's national ‌rights, ⁠without saying whether ⁠he was referring to prospective talks with Israel.

The televised address was ⁠his first speech ‌since ‌the US brokered a ‌ceasefire to ‌end fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah on Thursday. ‌

The text of the deal ⁠says ⁠Israel and Lebanon would hold direct talks to produce a "peace between the two countries".

Aoun said Lebanon was on the verge of a "new phase" of "permanent agreements."

"Now, we all stand before a new phase," he added, stressing "it is the phase of transition from working on a ceasefire to working on permanent agreements that preserve the rights of our people, the unity of our land, and the sovereignty of our nation."

He added that direct talks with Israel were "not a sign of weakness nor a concession... negotiations do not mean, and will never mean, giving up any right, conceding any principle, or compromising the sovereignty of this nation."

Moreover, Aoun stressed that Lebanon was no longer an "arena" for anyone's wars.

"We are confident that we will save Lebanon... we have reclaimed Lebanon and Lebanon's decision-making power for the first time in nearly half a century," he declared, adding that "today, we negotiate for ourselves... we are no longer a pawn in anyone's game, nor an arena for anyone's wars, and we never will be again."

"I hereby affirm... that there will be no agreement that infringes upon our national rights, diminishes the dignity of our steadfast people, or relinquishes an iota of this nation's soil."