On the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz extermination camp run by the Nazis, Pope Francis said the horror of the annihilation of millions of Jews must never be forgotten or denied.

"Pope Francis went on to say that his heart is close to all the people who inhabit the Holy Land, which includes Israelis and Palestinians."

On the eve of the International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Pope Francis also noted that many Christians were killed in Nazi concentration camps.

Pope Francis has called Gaza’s church every evening, in solidarity with the 600 Palestinians seeking refuge there.

While some Jewish leaders condemned the pope’s recent remarks on Israel, others believe that Catholic-Jewish relations can survive the current tension.

ROME (Reuters) - Rome's chief Jewish rabbi on Thursday sharply criticised Pope Francis over the pontiff's recent ramping up of criticism against Israel's military campaign in Gaza, in an unusually forceful speech during an annual Catholic-Jewish dialogue event.

Pope Francis called for the respect of the ceasefire declared in the Gaza Strip and for the rapid delivery of humanitarian aid to the population.

Pope Francis expressed the hope that the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that came into effect on Sunday, Jan. 19, “would be respected immediately by all the parties [involved]” and would lead to “the release of all the hostages” and the rapid provision of urgently needed humanitarian aid to the population of Gaza.

The 266th head of the Catholic Church called for peace in the Middle East—a routine request from his predecessors. But Pope Francis went one step further, ensuring his message was crystal clear:

Church leaders across Europe marked the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp with calls to remember German Nazi-inflicted sufferings and to counter a new rise in antisemitism and extremism.

Vásquez was most recently selected by Francis to oversee the Diocese of Tyler, also in Texas, after he dismissed its former bishop, Joseph Strickland, who had openly accused the pope of being a heretic and called into question the validity of his leadership.

Pope Francis said the people who have been trapped in a parish in Gaza had a decent meal for the first time in a long time, after a ceasefire was established between Israel and Hamas.