Superstar Madonna asks Pope to travel to Gaza Strip
Madonna was previously known for provoking the Catholic Church with her shows and videos. The US pop singer is now appealing to Pope Leo about the starving children in the Gaza Strip.
The situation in the Gaza Strip is catastrophic. According to the UN, acute malnutrition among children in the Palestinian territory on the Mediterranean Sea has reached an all-time high. Now, one of the world's most famous women is addressing the head of the Catholic Church with an urgent plea. Pop icon Madonna is asking Pope Leo XIV to travel to the sealed-off Gaza Strip.
"You are the only one of us who cannot be denied access," she writes on her social media channels. The gates to humanitarian aid must be opened wide to save innocent children. With regard to the Israel-Hamas war, she doesn't want to blame anyone, but rather help alleviate the suffering of all those affected.
"Most Holy Father, please look upon Gaza and bring your light to the children before it is too late," Madonna writes. "As a mother, I cannot bear their suffering."
Call for donations for women's Gaza initiativesThe 66-year-old artist combined her appeal with a fundraising appeal for the US -based aid organization "World Central Kitchen," which operates in Gaza, the Israeli peace initiative "Women Wage Peace," the Palestinian women's movement "Women of the Sun," and the Pope. Madonna herself has not shown any particular connection to the Catholic Church in the past.
At the end of July, Leo XIV expressed reservations about the advisability of a personal visit to the war zone, saying this was "not necessarily the answer."
As the highest-ranking representative of the Catholic Church in the region, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, traveled to Gaza on July 18 with the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III. Both subsequently denounced the humanitarian crisis. The right-wing government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the criticism.
Israel's military action is a response to the brutal attack by the radical Islamist Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups on towns and a pop festival in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. The resulting war has led to a humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, partly because Israel repeatedly blocks aid deliveries to the Palestinian territory. Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by numerous countries around the world.
AR/haz/pg (kna, dpa, efe)
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