DaysofPal – The Gaza Center for Human Rights has issued an urgent humanitarian and moral appeal to Pope Leo XIV, calling on him to visit the Gaza Strip at the earliest possible opportunity to witness firsthand the ongoing humanitarian catastrophe affecting more than two million people, including members of the Christian community.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the center said a papal visit to Gaza would send a global message of solidarity with unarmed civilians and refocus international attention on a humanitarian situation that continues to deteriorate, despite a ceasefire announced six months ago.
The center stressed that Gaza’s Christians have been full partners in pain and suffering as a result of the Israeli genocidal campaign carried out by Israeli occupation, and said the visit would be a significant moral step to support the historic Christian presence in the occupied Palestinian territory and to reinforce the values of justice and peace upheld by the Catholic Church.
The rights group reminded the Vatican that several Christian places of worship in the Gaza Strip had been targeted and destroyed in Israeli airstrikes, including the Church of Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City.
The Holy Family Church and its surroundings also suffered extensive damage.
The statement noted that a number of Palestinian Christians were killed or wounded while sheltering in churches or in their homes, in what the center described as a scene that embodies the unity of fate shared by Palestinians regardless of their religious affiliation.
The appeal highlighted what it called grave breaches of the ceasefire that came into effect on 10 October 2025.
According to the center’s field data, 2,400 serious violations have been documented in the six months since then, including: 921 shooting incidents, 97 incursions by military vehicles into residential areas, 1,109 bombing and targeting operations and 273 demolitions of homes and civilian buildings.
These incidents, the statement said, have resulted in the killing of 757 Palestinians, 99 percent of them civilians, including 312 children, women and elderly people. Another 2,100 civilians were wounded, more than half of them from the most vulnerable groups.
With these figures, the cumulative toll since the start of the offensive on 7 October 2023 has risen, according to the center, to 72,336 Palestinians killed and 172,213 wounded.
The Gaza Center for Human Rights said hundreds of thousands of displaced people are living in dire conditions in ruined schools or makeshift tents that lack basic necessities, after what it described as the destruction of 90 percent of homes and buildings in the Gaza Strip.
It added that Israeli occupation has forcibly concentrated the population into an area exceeding 54 percent of the territory’s total size, after razing entire neighborhoods and civilian infrastructure, rendering vast swathes of Gaza “unfit for a dignified and safe life.”
The center expressed appreciation for Pope Leo XIV’s previous moral positions, which have emphasized solidarity with victims, rejection of attacks on civilians and the need to respect international humanitarian law.
These positions, it said, side with human dignity and reject the logic of war and genocide, and constitute an important voice of conscience in a world where the circle of silence is widening.”
“While we value this clear humanitarian discourse,” the statement continued.
“we hope it will be reinforced by a practical step in the form of a visit to the Gaza Strip, with all that such a visit would convey in terms of a message of justice and peace to the victims and to the international community alike.” It added.
The Gaza Center for Human Rights described a papal visit as an ethical move with “profound impact,” restoring respect for human dignity and sending a clear message to the world about the need to uphold international humanitarian law and ensure the protection of civilians and places of worship without discrimination.
The statement concluded by saying that the people of Gaza, Muslims and Christians alike, are looking to the Pope for a courageous humanitarian stance that translates spiritual values into a physical presence among the victims and places the world before its legal and moral responsibilities.
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