Pope says Israel-Hamas conflict has gone beyond war to 'terrorism'

Pope Francis on Wednesday met separately with Israeli relatives of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinians with family in Gaza and said the conflict had gone beyond war to become "terrorism".

Speaking in unscripted remarks at his general audience in St. Peter's Square shortly after the meetings in his residence, Francis said he heard directly how "both sides are suffering" in the conflict.

"This is what wars do. But here we have gone beyond wars. This is not war. This is terrorism," he said.

He asked for prayers so that both sides would "not go ahead with passions, which, in the end, kill everyone".

A group of Palestinians in the crowd at the audience held up pictures of bodies wrapped in white cloth and a placard saying "the Nakba continues".

Nakba is the Arab word for catastrophe and refers to the displacement and dispossession of Palestinians in the 1948 war that surrounded Israel's founding.

Both groups of relatives will hold separate news conferences later on Wednesday.

The meetings and the pope's comments came hours after Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in Gaza for at least four days to allow in aid and release at least 50 hostages captured by militants in exchange for at least 150 Palestinians jailed in Israel.

Israel has placed Gaza under siege and relentless bombardment since Hamas militants attacked southern Israeli towns on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 240 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

Since then, more than 14,000 Gazans have been killed, about 40% of them children, according to medical officials in the Hamas-ruled territory, figures deemed reliable by the United Nations.