Pope Francis urged Iran and Israel on Sunday to avoid steps that could feed \u201ca spiral of violence\u201d that risked plunging the Middle East deeper into conflict.
\nSpeaking to pilgrims in St Peter\u2019s Square, Francis said he had been following news of Iran\u2019s drone and missile attack on Israel with a sense of concern and pain.
\n\u201cI make a heartfelt appeal for a halt to any action that could fuel a spiral of violence with the risk of dragging the Middle East into an even greater conflict,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cNo one should threaten the existence of others. All nations should stand, instead, for peace, and help Israelis and Palestinians to live in two states, side by side, in safety,\u201d he added.
\nThe pope called for a ceasefire in Gaza and negotiations to allow humanitarian aid to be provided for its people and to help free Israeli hostages seized by Hamas in its Oct. 7 attack on Israel.
\n\u201cEnough war, enough attacks, enough violence. Yes to dialogue, yes to peace,\u201d he said.
\n(Reuters)conflict. violence, conflict, peace<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pope Francis urged Iran and Israel to avoid actions that could escalate violence in the Middle East. He called for a ceasefire in Gaza and negotiations for humanitarian aid and the release of Israeli hostages. The Pope emphasized the importance of peace and dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":8211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"Default","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[122,1972,383,1234,1423,6432,4657,6329,4387,2658,145,298,1025,1235,399,146,299,3426,69,466,1053,1864,3331,462,4834,1686,4278,1354,4054,1222,134,293,18],"class_list":["post-8210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other","tag-aid","tag-appeal","tag-attack","tag-attacks","tag-ceasefire","tag-conflict","tag-dialogue","tag-drone-and-missile-attack","tag-francis","tag-fuel","tag-gaza","tag-hamas","tag-hostages","tag-humanitarian","tag-humanitarian-aid","tag-iran","tag-israel","tag-israeli-hostages","tag-middle-east","tag-missile","tag-missile-attack","tag-negotiations","tag-news","tag-palestinians","tag-peace","tag-pope","tag-pope-francis","tag-release","tag-risk","tag-safety","tag-violence","tag-war","tag-world"],"acf":{"keyphrase":"","keywords":"","sourceimg":"","country-category":""},"yoast_head":"\n