The Catholic office overseeing the Gaza church with which the late Pope Francis communicated daily has shared with Newsweek a message following the selection of a new pontiff in the midst of the ongoing war.

Pope Leo XIV has echoed his predecessor’s urgent call for an end to the assault that has killed more than 52,000 Palestinians.

Gaza's tiny Christian community said that they were happy about the election of a new leader of the Catholic Church on Thursday, adding they were also confident he would give importance to the war-torn enclave like his predecessor Pope Francis did.

Pope Francis repeatedly called for an end to the war in the Gaza Strip, including during an Easter Sunday address delivered the day before he died. But numerous social media posts claiming to show footage of his final speech are mistaken;

Pope Francis entrusted the popemobile he used for his 2014 pilgrimage to the Holy Lands to a Catholic aid network to help injured and malnourished children in Gaza.