Rome — Pope Leo XIV met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on the Vatican on Thursday, marking their first in-person encounter because the Chicago native was chosen to guide the Catholic Church in Could. The 2 had spoken beforehand on the cellphone.
The hour-long assembly, described by the Holy See as “cordial,” centered on the humanitarian disaster in Gaza and renewed requires a two-state answer, a place the Vatican has persistently promoted as the one viable path to peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
The talks got here practically a month after a U.S.-brokered ceasefire took maintain in Gaza, bringing a fragile calm following two years of battle that started with Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist assault on Israel.
In line with a Vatican assertion, each leaders agreed on “the urgent need to provide assistance to the civilian population in Gaza,” and to “end the conflict by pursuing a two-state solution,” which might see an impartial Palestinian state created alongside Israel.
Pope Leo XVI meets with President of the State of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas throughout an viewers on the Apostolic Palace, Nov. 6, 2025, in Vatican Metropolis.
Simone Risoluti/Vatican Media by way of Vatican Pool/Getty
Abbas’ go to additionally marked the tenth anniversary of the “Comprehensive Agreement” signed in 2015 between the Holy See and the State of Palestine — which noticed the Vatican, like a rising variety of nations, formally acknowledge Palestinian statehood.
Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority, which partially administers a few of the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution however holds no sway in Gaza, arrived in Rome on Wednesday and visited the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, the place he laid flowers on the tomb of the late Pope Francis, whom he referred to as “a great friend of Palestine.”
For Abbas, the assembly provided a possibility to reaffirm worldwide backing for a Palestinian state at a time when the concept appears more and more distant on the bottom.
Abbas has stated the PA, which he heads, is able to step into post-war Gaza to manage the densely populated territory, however Netanyahu’s authorities has rejected any future function for the PA or Hamas within the strip. Netanyahu has additionally clearly dominated out the creation of a Palestinian state whereas he’s prime minister, and his coalition authorities contains hard-line factions that espouse constructing Israeli settlements within the strip as a substitute.
A map shared by President Trump on Oct. 4, 2025, reveals the “yellow line” to which he stated Israeli forces would withdraw underneath a ceasefire settlement with Hamas, leaving Israeli troops accountable for greater than half of the Palestinian territory.
President Trump/Fact Social
The American pope has echoed his predecessor’s assist for Palestinian rights whereas putting a much less essential tone on Israel.
He has condemned the compelled displacement of civilians in Gaza and referred to as for sustained humanitarian support, however stopped in need of labeling Israel’s navy operation in opposition to Hamas within the territory as “genocide,” as Pope Francis did late in his preach.
The Vatican’s continued advocacy for a two-state answer underscores a broader actuality: Whereas the idea stays a cornerstone of worldwide diplomacy — championed by most governments worldwide and the United Nations, although not clearly by the Trump administration — it carries much less traction within the area itself.
Current polling reveals that the majority Israelis and Palestinians not consider such an association is possible.
Amongst Palestinians, a late October ballot reveals shrinking optimism for statehood amid disillusionment with the Palestinian Authority and a latest pattern of better backing for Hamas, which has softened its stance barely lately, however nonetheless requires the creation of a Palestinian state rather than Israel.
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