WANA (Apr 25) – The Israeli newspaper Haaretz revealed on Friday that Tel Aviv has instructed its ambassadors to refrain from signing condolence books at Vatican embassies worldwide, in protest at Pope Francis’s outspoken opposition to the war on Gaza and his condemnation of the humanitarian crisis there.

 

The funeral of Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church, is scheduled to be held Saturday morning in St. Peter’s Square, with world leaders and members of royal families expected to attend. However, Israel will be represented only by its ambassador to the Vatican and not by any senior official.

 

The Vatican announced Pope Francis’s death on Monday morning at the age of 88 at his residence in Santa Marta. Haaretz reported that the Israeli Foreign Ministry deleted condolence messages previously posted on its official accounts and instructed all diplomatic missions to do the same.

 

After removing the posts, Israel’s Foreign Ministry claimed the original messages had been “published by mistake.”

 

In his final Easter address, Pope Francis described Israel’s war on Gaza as a “source of death and destruction” and called the humanitarian situation in the enclave “horrific and shameful.”

 

On Easter Sunday, speaking from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, the late pope called for a ceasefire in Gaza, the release of hostages, and urgent aid for a population “hungry and yearning for a future of peace.”