Vatican City, Jan 13, 2009 / 17:53 pm
In an address made public Monday afternoon, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the permanent observer of the Holy See to the U.N. in Geneva, called upon Israel and Hamas to put an end to hostilities and resume negotiations.
Archbishop Tomasi delivered his appeal during the ninth special session of the Human Rights Council, and called attention to "the grave violations of human rights in the occupied Palestinian Territory, including the recent aggression of the occupied Gaza Strip."
The prelate’s January 9th address called for solidarity with victims of extreme violence, and appealed to the warring parties in the Holy Land to observe a cease-fire and return to negotiations.
His statement was intended to express "solidarity with both the people in Gaza, who are dying and suffering because of the on-going military assault by the Israeli Defense Forces, and the people in Sderot, Ashkelon and other Israeli cities who are living under the constant terror of rocket attacks launched by Palestinian militants from within the Gaza Strip, which have caused casualties and wounded a number of people," the archbishop said.