Palestinians gather to receive a hot meal at a food distribution point in the Nuseirat camp for refugees in the central Gaza Strip on May 21, 2025. (Photo by Eyad Baba / AFP)
Vatican City: Pope Leo XIV called on Wednesday for sufficient humanitarian aid to be allowed into war-ravaged Gaza, where humanitarian agencies say a total blockade has sparked critical food and medicine shortages.
"The situation in the Gaza Strip is worrying and painful," the pope said during his first weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square.
"I renew my heartfelt appeal to allow the entry of sufficient humanitarian aid and to put an end to the hostilities, the heartbreaking price of which is paid by children, the elderly, the sick," he said.
Palestinians line up to receive a hot meal at a food distribution point in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood in Gaza City in the central Gaza Strip on May 21, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-Qattaa / AFP)
Leo, who was elected on May 8 to be the Catholic Church's first US pope, has made peace a theme of his papacy so far, calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
Israel has come under massive international pressure to abandon its intensified military campaign in Gaza and allow urgent humanitarian aid into the besieged strip.
The UN announced on Monday that it had been cleared to send in aid for the first time since Israel imposed a total blockade on March 2, sparking severe shortages of food and medicine. But aid groups say the amount allowed in is not enough to meet needs.
Pope Leo XIV sits in the Popemobile at the end of his first weekly general audience at St Peter's Square in The Vatican on May 21, 2025. (Photo by Filippo Monteforte / AFP)
Gazans wait for aid as Israel faces mounting pressure
Palestinians line up to receive a hot meal at a food distribution point in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood in Gaza City in the central Gaza Strip on May 21, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-Qattaa / AFP)
Gazans waited desperately for vital supplies on Wednesday after Israel said it let in dozens of UN trucks but faced mounting international pressure to increase the aid flow and abandon its intensified military campaign.
Rescuers in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory told AFP that overnight Israeli strikes killed at least 19 people, including a week-old baby.
Palestinians line up to receive a hot meal at a food distribution point in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood in Gaza City in the central Gaza Strip on May 21, 2025. (Photo by Omar AL-Qattaa / AFP)
Israel said 93 trucks had entered Gaza on Tuesday but faced accusations the amount fell far short of what was required. The United Nations said the aid had been held up.
Umm Talal Al-Masri, 53, a displaced Palestinian living in an area of Gaza City, described the situation as "unbearable".
"No one is distributing anything to us. Everyone is waiting for aid, but we haven't received anything," she told AFP.
"We're grinding lentils and pasta to make some loaves of bread, and we barely manage to prepare one meal a day."
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said the volume of aid Israel had started to allow into Gaza was not nearly enough for the population of 2.4 million, describing it as "a smokescreen to pretend the siege is over".
