Appeal for peace, reconciliation between Israelis, Palestinians

By Nathan Morley

Following his Sunday Angelus address in St. Peter's Square, Pope Francis appealed for dialogue in the Holy Land, and for peace and reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians.

The call came amid heightened tensions following Israel's recent military incursion in the occupied West Bank.

Last week, Israel targeted the Jenin refugee camp, resulting in widespread devastation.

The unrest began when 150 armoured vehicles and about 1,000 Israeli soldiers enforced a siege on the Jenin camp, a known flashpoint for Israeli-Palestinian violence.

The Israeli army said the operation was to destroy and confiscate weapons.

During the operation, the UN's humanitarian office said it was alarmed at the scale of air and ground operations in Jenin and especially air strikes hitting a densely populated refugee camp.

Thousands of Palestinians fled the camp once the unrest began.

In response to the Israeli operation, seven people were injured, three seriously, in a car ramming attack in Tel Aviv in Israel on Tuesday.

In that incident, police said a 20-year-old Palestinian man drove into pedestrians standing outside a shopping mall.

This weekend, a delegation of foreign diplomats visited the refugee camp on a tour organised by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees.

 A delegation of 30, mostly European diplomats, inspected homes and infrastructure destroyed during the offensive.