Israel

JERUSALEM (OSV News) — There has been a sharp rise in reported harassment against Christians in Israel, according to new data presented June 4 by the Religious Freedom Data Center. …

Pope Leo XIV again called on the international community to assist the people of Gaza, saying that human rights must be respected “for everyone.”

JERUSALEM (OSV News) — Holding placards calling for “justice,” “trust” and “peace,” religious leaders led hundreds of peace activists, Jews, Muslims, Christians and Druze in a march in Jerusalem May 18, …

“In whose name and for what motivation can sacred places be destroyed and outraged, human beings offended and humiliated, religious signs and symbols trampled upon?”

Lebanese Christians in Debel are celebrating the gift of a new statue of Jesus on the cross after a recent act of desecration by two Israeli soldiers drew global outrage.

A U.S. bishop is calling for peace and humanitarian aid to Lebanon, where the U.S.-Israel war on Iran has spread with devastating consequences.

“What Israel wants is the disarmament of Hezbollah, and this goal has not been achieved. A truce would reopen the door to diplomacy.”

The Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem issued an Easter message calling the Iran war an “expanding wreckage” and its timing a “deep darkness.”

At his first Palm Sunday, Pope Leo XIV declared that Jesus, the King of Peace, embraces all suffering in human history and cries out from the cross against war.

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, and Father Francesco Ielpo, the custos of the Holy Land, were prevented from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulcher by Israeli …