Pope calls for Israel-Hamas ceasefire, hostage release

Pope Francis on Sunday called for a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas and renewed an appeal for the release of hostages held by the Palestinian militant group in Gaza. “Let no-one abandon the possibility of stopping the weapons,” he said at his weekly blessing in St. Peter’s Square. “Ceasefire,” he said, mentioning a recent television appeal by Father Ibrahim Faltas, one of the Vatican’s representatives in the Holy Land. Francis spoke as Israeli forces waged ground operations against Hamas in Gaza.