Palestine

| ISRAEL - PALESTINE - UNITED STATES

The young woman, killed in Washington with her colleague and boyfriend Yaron Lischinsky, by an attacker who shouted "I did it for Gaza, I did it for Palestine”, was actively involved with an NGO that brings together Israelis and Palestinians to build common ground and coexistence using new technologies. Unlike the extremists who fan the flames, the group sees “people behind the propaganda”.

by Dario Salvi

Speaking to AsiaNews, the activist attacks the prime minister who "wants to continue the war" to "survive politically,” aided by a weak and fragmented opposition and widespread "weariness and despair" in Israeli society. Israel’s latest attacks in Gaza sow more death and destruction. Only un "unpredictable" Trump can push for an agreement but his focus is on the Houthis in Yemen. Some 55 NGOs sign an appeal against the law that would block their activities.

| 07/05/2025
| ISRAEL – PALESTINE
by Giorgio Bernardelli

From Bergamo, 60-year-old Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa brings the “Mother Church” back among the electors of a Pope for the first time in centuries. Living in Jerusalem for the past 35 years, the Franciscan friar has long been engaged in dialogue with both Judaism and Islam. He served for 12 years as Custos of the Holy Land. Throughout the many tragic episodes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—including the past two years—he has called for cultivating the freedom of peace, refusing to be crushed by hatred, and making the Gospel resound once again in the land of Jesus.

| 06/05/2025
| TOWARDS CONCLAVE/22

The pro-Iranian rebel group hits near Ben Gurion airport, announce an offensive on airports to block air traffic. For the first time, Israel has admitted that it has been hit and doubts are emerging about the effectiveness of its defences. The Netanyahu government approves an operation to seize Gaza, at the expense of the hostages, angering their families.

| 05/05/2025
| YEMEN – ISRAEL – GAZA

At the La Sapienza University in Rome, the Gaza activist talked about his struggle against Hamas. A member of the Bidna Naish movement, which emerged to demand greater economic fairness and fresh elections, he was arrested twice, in 2019 and 2023. Now in voluntary exile in Europe, he speaks out against the repression by the Islamist movement and calls on the international community to support moderate Palestinian voices, far from Iranian-style extremism.

| 17/04/2025
| PALESTINE – ISRAEL
by Dario Salvi

After the new raid on the Anglican hospital, the parish priest talks about the celebrations in a church perceived as a ‘safe place, even if no place is’ in the Strip. The pain of the death of a child due to the bombings. ‘There is no sign of détente’. The request for prayers and gratitude for the closeness of Pope Francis who ‘continues to call us’.

| 14/04/2025
| ISRAEL - PALESTINE

The Catholic radio based in Taybeh reacts to Palestinian Christians who want Plam Sunday ceremonies cancelled this year to protest Israeli killings in Gaza and the West Bank. However, this tradition represents “resistance to injustice and victory over oppression, injustice, and death. To abandon it would mean abandoning a part of our Palestinian Christian identity.”

| 12/04/2025
| HOLY LAND
Editor's choices
 
by Giorgio Bernardelli
Hong Kong’s Card Stephen Chow said that the pope told him that he “visited China several times and got to know the Chinese culture and reality.” This is unprecedented for a pontiff, linked to his long mandate as prior general of an ...
| 21/05/2025
| CHINA – VATICAN
 
After 2,454 days unjustly behind bars, the former senator and minister of Justice is back in Congress, in the House of Representatives this time. With the opposition party, Mamamayang Liberal (ML), she will challenge the political oligarchies of the ...
| 20/05/2025
| PHILIPPINES
 
A source in mainland China spoke to AsiaNews about the election of a pontiff born in a country that, according to state propaganda, is its archfoe against whom to flaunt China’s superiority. Yet, the open gaze of Chinese Catholics towards Leo XIV ...
| 14/05/2025
| CHINA
 
The local government is asking the Legislative Council (which it controls) to approve a new regulation that would hand over jurisdiction to mainland China in "complex cases" involving foreign countries. The measure appears tailored to the case of Jimmy ...
| 12/05/2025
| HONG KONG - CHINA
 
by Gianni Criveller
Leo XIV experienced the mission for a long time, in Peru first, as a reason for being alive. This is something new for a pontiff. He has already spoken about authority that should “disappear so that Christ remains.” The choice of the name ...
| 11/05/2025
| EDITORIAL
 
by Oswald Gracias *
The archbishop emeritus of Bombay (Mumbai), representative of Asia on Pope Francis’s Council of Cardinals, wrote to AsiaNews about the new pope. “He brings hopes, expectations, understanding, openness and a missionary thrust,” the cardinal ...
| 10/05/2025
| VATICAN – ASIA
 
by Alessandra De Poli
Cardinal Prevost, a spiritual son of St Augustine, was elected pope on the very day the Church celebrated the liturgical feast of the martyrs of Algeria, among whom were two Augustinian nuns. And in the description of the “disarmed and disarming” ...
| 09/05/2025
| VATICAN /1
 
Born in Chicago, he is the first pontiff from North America who also served as bishop of Chiclayo and has Peruvian citizenship. For two terms he was prior general of the Augustinians, a religious order also present in many Asian countries. Pope Francis ...
| 08/05/2025
| VATICAN
“L’Asia: ecco il nostro comune compito per il terzo millennio!” - Giovanni Paolo II, da “Alzatevi, andiamo”