The Israel accused him Pope Francis that he is following a “double standards and two standards” tactic, after the pontiff condemned “the brutality” of an Israeli airstrike in the Gaza Strip that killed ten members of the same family, including seven children, on Friday, according to the Palestinian political protection.

“Yesterday children were bombed. This is brutality, not war. I wanted to mention it because it touches the heart,” the pope said on Saturday before members of the Holy See’s government.

Civil protection in the Gaza Strip announced on Friday that ten members of the same family—including seven children and a woman—were killed in an Israeli strike on a house in Jabalia, in the northern Palestinian enclave.

“Slaughter of the occupation caused ten martyrs from the Hala family, which was the target of an airstrike in its house in Jabalia,” said Mahmoud Basal representative of the Palestinian Civil Protection.

All the dead “belong to the same family, among them seven children, the oldest of whom was six years old, and a woman. In addition, there are more than 15 injured”, he explained.

Israel’s military responded that the Palestinian civilian protection account was “not consistent with the information it has.”

Israeli forces “hit many terrorists operating from a military structure” of Hamas and “were a threat,” he assured.

Besides that State Department of Israel reacted to the pope’s remarks, which he described as “particularly disappointing”, complaining that he does not take into account the fact that Israel is facing a war on many fronts, which was imposed on it.

“Criticism should be directed solely at the terrorists, not at the democracy that defends itself against them. We must stop using double standards and rejecting the Jewish state and its people,” the Israeli ministry added in its statement.

“Barbarism is when terrorists hide behind children while trying to kill Israeli children. “It is barbarity when 100 hostages, among them an infant and children, are held and abused by terrorists for 442 days,” the announcement stressed.

“Unfortunately, the pope has chosen to ignore all this,” the foreign ministry said, adding that “the death of any innocent person in war is a tragedy.”

“Israel goes to great lengths to prevent harm from happening to innocents, while Hamas goes to great lengths to increase harm to Palestinian civilians,” the statement concluded.

The 88-year-old pope is calling for peace after Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, and the Israeli military operation that followed.

In recent weeks he has hardened his tone against Israel.

At the end of November the pope had declared that “the arrogance of the invader (…) prevails over the dialogue” in “Palestine”, breaking the traditional neutrality of the Holy See.

In addition, in the same month he called, in excerpts from a forthcoming book, for a “detailed” investigation to determine whether the situation in Gaza “meets the technical definition” of genocide, something Israel categorically rejects.

In the same passages the pope pointed out that some international experts state that “what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of genocide”.

THE Amichai Hickley, Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Minister strongly criticized these statements in an open letter published in the Italian newspaper Il Foglio on Friday. In it, he emphasized that Francis’ comments amount to “demeaning” the term genocide.

OR Holy See supports the two-state solution – one Israeli and one Palestinian – and has recognized the state of Palestine since 2013, with which it maintains diplomatic relations.