President Cyril Ramaphosa said that the A.N.C. remained steadfast in advocating for peace between Israel and Palestine. He said the A.N.C. stood with Palestine and its citizens, who have been oppressed for more than 70 years.

Pope Francis today called for the silencing of guns in Gaza and declared Oct. 27 a World Day of Prayer for peace.

It is hard to see how, at the present moment, either Gaza or Israel could possibly meet the traditional criteria of just war theory.

The Catholic Church’s highest ranking prelate in the Holy Land offered his “absolute availability” to be exchanged for Israeli children taken hostage by Hamas.

Sandesh Gonsalves, who leads the Jesuit Refugee Service team in Afghanistan, reports that Afghans are struggling in the wake of a “massive” earthquake that struck on Oct. 7. According to U.N. sources, the humanitarian aid system in Afghanistan is already desperately overstretched and underfunded, with over 29 million Afghans in need of assistance.

While outright war conditions pertain in Gaza and along its border in southern Israel, in the north, in Jerusalem and the West Bank, conditions are also fraught. Violence between Palestinians and Israeli settlers has broken out sporadically.