VATICAN CITY – Vatican Pope Francis thanked Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, Jordanian King Abdullah II and United Nations (UN) Secretary General António Guterres for their call to hold an emergency international conference on the situation in Gaza, Italian News Agency (AKI) reported Monday.
The event will be organized by Egypt Jordan, Egypt and the UN in Jordan.
The pope said the international community should promptly act to extend aid to Palestinians in Gaza, saying that he highly encourages ongoing talks between Palestinians and Israelis
Heads of state and government and heads of international humanitarian and relief organizations will attend the conference.
The gathering seeks to promote ways to bolster the international community’s response to the humanitarian catastrophe endured by as many as 2.3 million Palestinians across the Gaza Strip and secure a commitment for a collective coordinated response to address the humanitarian situation in Gaza.
The conference also aims to determine effective measures and procedures, as well as operational and logistical needs for addressing the Palestinian crisis.
Since 7 October, the Israeli war on Gaza has killed over 36,280 Palestinians and wounded more than 80,000 others, mostly women and children.
The Israeli blockade on most food, water, and fuel supplies to the strip has created near-famine conditions there.
The ongoing Israeli ground assault on Rafah, where 1.3 million Palestinians had sought shelter from Israeli bombardment, has exacerbated humanitarian conditions.
UN officials say more than 800,000 people have fled Rafah.
In early May, Israel launched its assault on the Palestinian city of Rafah on Gaza’s southern edge, taking over the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt for the first time since Israel pulled out its soldiers and settlers from the strip in 2005.
