Pope Francis makes first public appearance since leaving hospital
Grzegorz Galazka/Archivio Grzegorz Galazka/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images
(LONDON) — Pope Francis on Sunday made his first public appearance since being discharged from hospital two weeks ago.
Francis, 88, entered St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican in a wheelchair to briefly greet crowds that were gathered to mark the Jubilee of the Sick and the World of Healthcare. The pope was wearing oxygen nasal cannulas.
“Happy Sunday to everyone,” Francis said to those attending the mass, as quoted by the Italian ANSA news agency. “Happy Sunday to everyone,” he repeated. “Thank you very much.”
In a statement, the Vatican press office said Francis “joined the Jubilee pilgrimage.” It added, “Before greeting the pilgrims and faithful in the square, to whom he addressed his thanks, he received the sacrament of reconciliation in St. Peter’s Basilica, gathered in prayer and passed through the Holy Door.”
The Vatican press office also released the Pope’s Angelus message. “Dearest ones, as during my hospitalization, even now in my convalescence I feel the ‘finger of God’ and experience his caring caress,” the pope’s message read.
“Let us continue to pray for peace: in the tormented Ukraine, hit by attacks that cause many civilian victims, including many children,” it continued.
“And the same thing happens in Gaza, where people are reduced to living in unimaginable conditions, without a roof, without food, without clean water. Let the weapons fall silent and dialogue resume; let all the hostages be freed and the population be helped.”
“Let us pray for peace throughout the Middle East; in Sudan and South Sudan; in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; in Myanmar, also severely tested by the earthquake; and in Haiti, where violence is raging, which a few days ago killed two nuns,” Francis’ message read.
The pope was discharged from hospital on March 23 after being treated for double pneumonia.
ABC News’ Somayeh Malekian and Phoebe Natanson contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — When she left her home in Gaza City 16 months ago, Tala Herzallah didn’t think she was seeing it for the last time.
Now, walking in the rubble of what used to be her house, the 22-year-old Palestinian can barely recognize the place where she spent most of her life.
“It pains me to say it, but I only can recognize a wall from my home. Just one wall,” she told ABC News. “Otherwise, everything just disappeared as if it wasn’t there.”
Herzallah, an English student at the Islamic University of Gaza, packed her school bag and a few of her most treasured belongings as she evacuated after incessant bombing hit her neighborhood, Tel Al-Hawa.
The northern part of Gaza was the first target of Israel’s retaliatory strikes following the Hamas-led October 2023 terror attack and remained the scene of some of the fiercest fighting. Multiple ground operations and relentless airstrikes damaged or destroyed most of the buildings.
Its residents were forced to evacuate. The lack of aid, medical care and basic resources made life impossible for those who stayed behind.
Still, as soon as a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was announced in January, hundreds of thousands made their way back north.
Those that have returned have been shocked by the devastation: their houses and belongings were mostly reduced to rubble and the signs of a humanitarian crisis are apparent on every corner.
But when Herzallah looked behind from her car, as bombs fell across the road that was taking her and her parents to a safer place in the south, she still hoped to return to north Gaza as she always knew it: colorful, vibrant and full of life.
That hope never faded, but with every month of war that went by, Herzallah said she knew there would be nothing waiting for her in Tel Al-Hawa.
“I know that it was destroyed. But until the last moment, I had this tiny hope that no, it won’t be destroyed. The pictures they showed me, I didn’t trust them,” she told ABC News. “I told myself, when I will reach it, it will be good.”
But it was not. As for millions of Palestinians in Gaza, Israel’s war changed everything for Herzallah.
Her house was reduced to rubble. Her education was paused as her university was destroyed and her beloved professor, Dr. Refaat Alareer, killed in an Israeli airstrike.
She was separated from her family, with her brothers in different parts of Gaza and her nephews abroad. She lost all her privacy, having to share a bathroom with more than 20 people for months.
“I don’t want to remember these days. I don’t want to remember how much I suffered because each time I remember these details, I feel that we’re not human beings,” she said. “No human being can tolerate and bear this much of pain and suffering.”
More than 48,000 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict, the Hamas-run Health Ministry reported, and 1.9 million people have been displaced, according to the United Nations.
Unable to process her present, Herzallah said she sometimes struggles to envision her future. Especially when the future she thought she would have had, if the war had not happened, gets in the way of planning anything else.
Entering her school’s campus for the first time since the war began, Herzallah found it changed to a shocking degree.
The Islamic University of Gaza, where she studied English Literature and Translation for the past three years, was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Oct. 10, 2023, as seen in a video shared by the Israeli military. They claimed Hamas used it as a base.
“It was always colorful. Colored with smiles, laughs,” Herzallah said, surrounded by burnt seats and a damaged stage. “I’ve never imagined to enter this place and see it as black as darkness. Pain is everywhere.”
Holding a graduation hat covered in dust, Herzallah said she felt all her losses.
“The first time I came to university, I dreamed of graduation day, of taking photos here with my family, siblings and professors,” she said. “Now I am graduating with nothing.”
Still, Herzallah said her dreams are “stuck between and among this rubble,” in her education. She received a scholarship to pursue her master’s degree in the U.S., which she sees as a second chance to make up for lost time and opportunities.
But she needs to leave Gaza first. Ceasefire talks are ongoing, but a permanent end to the war has yet to be agreed and Gaza’s borders remain closed.
Surrounded by unpredictability and hardship, one certainty remains for Herzallah: that if help is given, Palestinians can rebuild.
“We are strong enough to build it again. But the point is that we need a lot of things to help us. We need a lot of machines and other stuff,” she said.
To President Donald Trump’s proposal that the U.S. take over Gaza, Herzallah has a clear answer: provide the tools and then leave Gaza to Palestinians. She added his comments felt like a slap on her face after everything her people experienced.
“The relationship between Palestinians and their land is like the relationship between any mother and her sons,” Herzallah said. “Even if they leave their mother for a period of time, they will return at last to her hug and her embrace.”
(LONDON) — Israel will not withdraw from the Philadelphi corridor — the border separating Egypt and Gaza — as stipulated by the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel, an Israeli official confirmed to ABC News.
“We will not allow Hamas murderers to once again roam our borders with pickup trucks and guns, and we will not allow them to rebuild strength from smuggling,” an Israeli official said in a statement.
The Philadelphi corridor was one of the main sticking points in negotiations between Israel and Hamas for months before the current ceasefire deal was reached. This refusal could lead to a crisis with both Hamas and Egypt, the key mediator, at a delicate time for the already fragile truce.
Israel was supposed to begin withdrawing from the Philadelphi corridor — and the entire Gaza Strip — on Saturday, the last day of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement. Israel was to complete its withdrawal from the corridor within eight days.
Management of the corridor is a red line for Hamas, which had refused to accept ceasefire proposals that did not require Israel to withdraw its troops from the border region.
Israeli officials have said in recent months that they believed the Israeli army had to stay in the Philadelphi corridor to prevent weapons being smuggled through the Egyptian border, back into Gaza, though Israel has destroyed tunnels in that area.
Defense Minister Israel Katz said at a meeting with local leaders that he had seen tunnels penetrating the border on a recent visit to the corridor.
Former Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant had publicly opposed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence that Israel must remain in the corridor — and in the Netzarim corridor, which divides north and south Gaza — to maintain its security and achieve its military goals and maintain its security.
In August, then-Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi said holding on to any part of Gaza or the Philadelphi corridor are conditions Israel should not use as an excuse to break a potential deal with Hamas. The Israeli army can deal with both being out of Gaza and giving up control of Philadelphi, according to Halevi.
The first phase of the ceasefire ends on Saturday.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ROME and LONDON — Pope Francis rested overnight in the hospital, the Vatican said on Sunday.
“The night passed peacefully. The Pope rested,” the Holy See said in a short statement.
The 88-year-old pontiff underwent another round of clinical tests on Sunday morning, Vatican sources told ABC News. A medical update was expected to be released later in the day.
Francis continued on Sunday to receive oxygen therapy to aid his breathing, the sources said. Francis on Saturday morning suffered a “prolonged” asthmatic respiratory crisis, during which doctors supplied him with oxygen, the Vatican said.
The pontiff in a written prayer released on Sunday said he was “confidently continuing” his hospitalization, adding that “rest is also part of the therapy!”
“I sincerely thank the doctors and health workers of this hospital for the attention they are showing me and the dedication with which they carry out their service among the sick,” he said.
Asthmatic respiratory crisis indicates the pope struggled to maintain a sufficient oxygen level when breathing on his own, according to medical experts.
The Vatican on Saturday said the pope, who has led the Catholic Church since 2013, remained in critical condition.
The pope has been hospitalized at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital since Feb. 14 following a bout with bronchitis.
He was diagnosed with pneumonia on Tuesday, according to the Vatican.
Apart from his medical team and security, the pope has not had visitors apart from his closest aides, sources said.
ABC News’ Ivan Pereira and Youri Benadjaoud contributed to this report.
