Church leaders condemn killings, urge prayers amid horrific Syria violence March 10, 2025By Dale Gavlak OSV News Filed Under: Conflict in the Middle East, News, Religious Freedom, World News Syria’s top Christian leaders have condemned the killing and wounding of hundreds of Alawites, many of them civilians, by security forces and gunmen linked to the country’s new Islamist rulers.
Tens of thousands of Israelis line streets for funeral procession for Bibas family February 26, 2025By Judith Sudilovsky OSV News Filed Under: Conflict in the Middle East, News, World News Tens of thousands of mourners Feb. 26 lined the streets as the funeral procession for Shiri Bibas and her two children, Ariel and Kfir, made its way nearly 40 miles from Rishon Lezion in central Israel to Tsoher Regional Cemetery in southern Israel.
Visiting the poor in Lebanon was a prayer for Pope Francis, cardinal says February 24, 2025By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Conflict in the Middle East, News, Vatican, World News While Pope Francis was hospitalized in Rome’s Gemelli hospital, one of the cardinals closest to him traveled to Lebanon to demonstrate the pope’s ongoing concern for refugees and for peace in the Middle East.
Israel devastated by ‘macabre’ return of child hostages’ bodies as ceasefire holds February 21, 2025By Judith Sudilovsky OSV News Filed Under: Conflict in the Middle East, News, World News Israel has identified three of the bodies of hostages returned Feb. 20 but said the body of Shiri Bibas — mother of two red-headed boys who became a symbol of Israeli hostage suffering, both confirmed dead — was not returned as promised by Hamas.
Vatican cardinal heads to Lebanon to express pope’s solidarity, prayers February 18, 2025By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service Filed Under: Conflict in the Middle East, News, World News One out of four people living in Lebanon is a refugee, and the majority of children born in refugee camps are unregistered at birth, said Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
Cardinal Parolin: Palestinians must not be deported from Gaza February 14, 2025By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service Filed Under: Conflict in the Middle East, News, Vatican, World News The same week U.S. President Donald Trump reiterated his idea of emptying Gaza of more than 2 million Palestinians so it could become a “Riviera of the Middle East,” a top Vatican official said there must be no deportations.
Ceasefire overshadows Gaza’s humanitarian crisis, pontifical charity says February 3, 2025By Susan Korah OSV News Filed Under: Conflict in the Middle East, Feature, News, World News The long-awaited and elusive ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has silenced bombs and halted air raids on the Gaza Strip, for the time being, but the humanitarian situation there is dire, the regional director of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association reported.
Pilgrimages are ‘safe,’ Holy Land church leaders say, telling pilgrims: ‘We’re waiting for you’ January 22, 2025By Judith Sudilovsky OSV News Filed Under: Conflict in the Middle East, Feature, News, World News Catholic leaders in the Holy Land called on Christian pilgrims to return to the region following the implementation of the long-awaited ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
As ceasefire starts, first Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners return home January 20, 2025By Judith Sudilovsky OSV News Filed Under: Conflict in the Middle East, Feature, News, World News In the West Bank, scenes of joy were delayed but the streets erupted in cheers as the first 90 prisoners, mostly women and teens, freed from Israeli prisons, were brought home in white Red Cross buses after midnight Jan. 20 as in the Gaza Strip first caravans of those displaced by 15-month war attempted return to their homes — of which scores are flattened — and first 600 trucks of aid entered the strip.
Gaza ceasefire an ‘encouraging sign of peace’ for the Middle East, U.S. bishop says January 17, 2025By OSV News OSV News Filed Under: Conflict in the Middle East, Feature, News, World News The negotiations on a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the first release of hostages to begin Jan. 19 are seen as an “encouraging sign of peace,” said Bishop A. Elias Zaidan of the Maronite Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on International Justice and Peace.
Rome rabbi accuses pope of ‘selective indignation’ about Gaza January 17, 2025By Cindy Wooden Catholic News Service Filed Under: Conflict in the Middle East, Ecumenism and Interfaith Relations, News, Vatican, World News The chief rabbi of Rome said Christian-Jewish dialogue has been a victim of the war unleashed with the Hamas attack on Israel in October 2023.
Holy Land church leaders welcome ceasefire with relief, urge delivering critical aid January 16, 2025By Junno Arocho Esteves OSV News Filed Under: Conflict in the Middle East, Feature, News, World News As news spread of a long-awaited ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, reactions from religious leaders in the region expressed hopes for peace in the Holy Land, concern for the safety of hostages as well as the people of the Gaza Strip for the past 15 months.
