Pope Francis, the spiritual leader of the Catholic Church, has used the word “terrorism” to refer to the Israeli attacks on Gaza in a special telephonic meeting with Israeli President Isaac Herzog.
The Washington Post, citing an unnamed Israeli source, said that Pope Francis had a special telephone meeting with Herzog.
In a telephonic meeting closed to the media, President Herzog has said that “we have taken the necessary action to defend ourselves”, but the Pope has said that the citizens should not be held responsible for the situation.
According to an influential Israeli figure, Israel described the meeting as “bad” and therefore kept the details of the meeting from the public.
In the talks, the Pope allegedly warned Herzog, on behalf of Israeli operations in Gaza, that it is forbidden to respond to terrorism with terrorism.
Information about the meeting provided by the Vatican to The Washington Post acknowledged the meeting, but did not provide any information on whether or not the pope used the word “terrorism” during the talks.
According to the Vatican, the telephonic talks, like the other talks held on the same day, were conducted under the seriousness of the regional situation and efforts to control the influence of the constituency.
On the other hand, a spokesman of the Israeli presidential office refused to talk about the subject and said that “we do not talk about special meetings”.
