Pope Leo XIV told reporters on Tuesday that he considered President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war between Israel and the genocidal terrorists of Hamas a “realistic proposal” and encouraged Hamas to accept it.
Pope Leo, who assumed the leadership of the Catholic Church in May, has prioritized calling for an end to war in Gaza, currently controlled by Hamas, and in Ukraine, where the Russian government launched an ongoing, full-scale invasion in 2022. While he responded to other reporters’ questions about the Trump administration critically, or at least cautiously, he expressed optimism about the White House’s approach to the Middle East.
“We hope they accept it; so far it seems a realistic proposal,” the pontiff said, according to Vatican News. He added that the plan had “very interesting elements,” reiterating, “We hope Hamas accepts within the established timeframe.”
Vatican News noted that Pope Leo has habitually made time on Tuesday evenings to address reporters ahead of his general audience on Wednesday. Elsewhere in his remarks, the pope called for more aggressive measures to combat alleged changes in the climate and expressed concern regarding Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s call to overhaul military standards, particularly his call for more masculine and physically fit military leadership.
“This way of speaking is worrying,” the pope said, referring to Hegseth’s large military leadership meeting on Tuesday. “We hope it is just rhetoric.”
The pope added that he hoped the new approach to the military “works, but that there is no war; we must work for peace.”
President Trump unveiled a new 20-point plan to end the war, which began on October 7, 2023, with Hamas’s atrocities against Israeli civilians, during a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday. The proposal calls for the near-immediate end to hostilities between the Hamas jihadists and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), should both sides accept the deal, as well as an immediate release of all remaining hostages taken on October 7.
“Within 72 hours of Israel publicly accepting this agreement, all hostages, alive and deceased, will be returned. Once all hostages are released, Israel will release 250 life sentence prisoners plus 1700 Gazans who were detained after October 7th 2023,” the agreement reads.
The deal would also prevent Israel from annexing Gaza and would call for the IDF to withdraw completely, allowing for an “apolitical” committee to govern the Gaza Strip. This committee would initially be overseen, the agreement posits, by a “Board of Peace” led by Trump and leftist British former Prime Minister Tony Blair, among others yet to be announced.
The text of the proposal also states that any Hamas jihadists who “commit to peaceful co-existence and to decommission their weapons will be given amnesty.” It does not specify any oversight operations to ensure that terrorists in the program commit to peace and do not later revert to violent jihad. While the amnesty offer holds for individual terrorists, the proposal also states that Hamas as an entity can never govern Gaza again.
In addition to support from Netanyahu, a cohort of Israel’s neighbors published a letter on Tuesday announcing their support for the plan. The letter was signed by the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UAE, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkey, Qatar, and Egypt. It notably omitted mention of Hamas, but expressed confidence in Trump personally that he could resolve the conflict.
The signatory foreign ministers wrote that they “welcome President Donald J. Trump’s leadership and his sincere efforts to end the war in Gaza, and assert their confidence in his ability to find a path to peace.”
The group added that they “affirm their readiness to engage positively and constructively with the United States and the parties toward finalizing the agreement and ensuring its implementation, in a manner that ensures peace, security, and stability.”
In Europe, several countries recently calling for the establishment of a Palestinian state – without clear parameters for the borders or leadership of that that “state” – also expressed support on Tuesday. Both President Emmanuel Macron of France and Prime Minister Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom celebrated the agreement.
“I welcome President Trump’s commitment to ending the war in Gaza and ensuring the release of all hostages. I hope that Israel will engage firmly on this basis. Hamas has no choice but to immediately release all hostages and follow this path,” Macron wrote in a statement on social media.
“The new US initiative to deliver an end to the war in Gaza is profoundly welcome,” Starmer said in a statement, “and I am grateful for President Trump’s leadership. We strongly support his efforts to end the fighting, release the hostages and ensure the provision of urgent humanitarian assistance for the people of Gaza. This is our top priority and should happen immediately.”
Pope Leo has made calling for an end to the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine a priority of his papacy. In a statement in August, the pope called on Catholics to fast and pray during the commemoration of the queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
“Mary is the Mother of the faithful here on earth and is remembered as the Queen of Peace,” the pope said at the time.
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