Overview
- The pope held separate calls Friday with Israel’s Isaac Herzog and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy to push renewed talks and faster humanitarian access.
- Vatican readouts said he and Herzog backed reopening diplomatic channels and stressed protecting civilians and upholding international humanitarian law.
- Herzog’s office said the call addressed Iranian missile threats and Hezbollah and pointed to fresh strains at Jerusalem’s holy sites after the Latin Patriarch was briefly barred on Palm Sunday.
- In the conversation with Zelenskyy, the pope focused on aid and prisoner releases as Ukraine reported waves of Russian drones and missiles after its Easter ceasefire proposal.
- The Vatican has worked as a quiet go-between in the Ukraine war since 2022, using its channels to help with prisoner exchanges and offering to host talks.