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Join us this Holy Week for a poignant and inspiring event, “Philip Farah: Gaza Remembered, a Call for Solidarity and Peace.” In the spirit...

With pressure for a cease-fire increasing, 11 days of Israeli airstrikes in Gaza are taking a toll both mentally and physically on the Gaza population, said Bassam Nasser, head of the Gaza office for Catholic Relief Services.

Since early May 11, Israeli bombs have been falling around the Rosary Sisters school in Gaza, which sustained light to moderate damage inside and outside the compound -- including to the front door and solar panels used for electricity.

The 50-day war cost the lives of more than 2,250 Palestinians a year ago, 65 percent of whom were civilians, with the blockade of Gaza by Israel growing more intense, a priest in Gaza City said.

With close to a quarter of a million Palestinians rendered homeless by the continuing and intensifying fighting between Hamas and Israel in Gaza, the Coordinating Catholic Aid Organizations met three times in as many days to organize action to confront the humanitarian crisis.

The situation in hospitals in the Gaza Strip is dire, and Palestinians are saying that medical supplies will soon run out, said a cardiologist who serves with the Near East Council of Churches in Gaza. By July 14, more than 170 people — about half civilians — had been killed in Gaza, and hundreds more were injured.

JERUSALEM (CNS) -- As diplomatic efforts were underway to reach a ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel Nov. 20, Catholics on both sides of the Gaza border prayed for peace.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis met a former prime minister of Israel and a former Palestinian foreign minister who believe they have a workable peace plan for the Holy Land. Ehud Olmert, who served as the Israeli prime minister from 2006 to 2009, and Nasser al-Kidwa, the Palestinian foreign minister from 2005 to 2006, met Pope Francis Oct. 17 in the library of the Apostolic Palace.

ROME (CNS) -- As fighting in the Middle East intensified and spread, Pope Francis turned to Mary, begging her to "intercede for our world in danger." With members of the Synod of Bishops, pilgrims, ambassadors accredited to the Vatican and Catholics from the Diocese of Rome, the pope led the recitation of the rosary for peace Oct. 6 at Rome's Basilica of St. Mary Major.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Sitting in the Vatican Gardens with the dome of St. Peter's Basilica as a backdrop, Pope Francis told cardinals and diplomats, including the ambassadors of Israel and Palestine, "Every day I pray that this war will finally end." With a representative of Rome's Jewish community and a representative of the city's Muslim community in attendance June 7, the pope repeated his call for a cease-fire, his appeal to Hamas to release all the hostages it kidnapped Oct. 7 and his plea that Israel protect civilians in Gaza and allow humanitarian aid to reach them.