Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel offered condolences on Thursday on the disappearance of Pope Francis, more than three days after the death of the leader of the Roman Catholic world.
The delay in the issue of a declaration highlighted the apparent tensions in the relationship between Israeli officials and the Pope, who clearly criticized Israel's conduct in the war in Gaza and repeatedly requested a ceased.
“The state of Israel expresses its deepest condolences to the Catholic Church and the Catholic community all over the world to the disappearance of Pope Francis,” said the office of the Israeli Prime Minister in an assignment on X. “can rest in peace”.
Nor did the X account in the Jewish language for the Prime Minister's Office, nor the personal account of Netanyahu brought the short declaration. Netanyahu usually emits declarations of condolences shortly after the death of the world leaders.
Francis, who often telephoned the members of the Christian community in a decrease in Gaza, took advantage of the main addresses to the Catholic world to ask for the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza, a ceased for fire and the release of hostages held by the militants.
“My thoughts go above all to the victims of the numerous conflicts all over the world, starting from those in Israel and Palestine,” he said during the Easter Sunday Mass in 2024.
Since the beginning of March, Israel has blocked the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza, leaving many people in Gaza who fight to access food.
In a book published in November 2024, Francis said that the war in Gaza should be designed to determine if it constituted a genocide. The declaration obtained a hard reproach from a member of the government of Mr. Netanyahu, Amichai Chikli, Minister of Affairs of the Diaspora, who supported him was a “trivialization” of the term genocide. Israeli officials claim that Israel is leading a war against Hamas to Gaza and non -civilians. They also argue that these are Hamas who should face accusations of genocide after his attack on October 7, 2023, when about 1,200 people were killed in Israel and about 250 were taken prisoner. The Pope also met the families of the Israelis taken hostage by Hamas.
More than 51,000 people in Gaza have been killed since the beginning of the war, according to the Ministry of Health in the territory, which does not distinguish between civilians and fighters.
In 2014, Francis visited Israel and the Israeli western West Bill, where he asked for a “sovereign homeland” for the Palestinians. It also became the first pontiff to refer to the occupied territory as “the state of Palestine”.
Isaac Herzog, the large -sized president of Israel, was one of the first leaders to issue a mourning statement for Francis' death.
But on the day of the Pope's death, Israel's foreign ministry released a statement on X, saying “his memory can be a blessing”. But shortly thereafter, the ministry eliminated the pole.
After dealing with the criticisms in Israel, the ministry republished a photo of his ambassador to the Holy See, Yaron Sideman, visiting the Pope's coffin in the Vatican. Ambassador Sideman will represent Israel at the Pope's funeral, according to Oren Marmorstein, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry.
In a declaration, Marmorstein did not explicitly deal with the cancellation of the post X, but stressed that Israeli diplomats from all over the world offered their condolences on social media and have signed official condolence books.
Aaron Boxerman Contributed relationships.