Lisbon, May 22, 2025 (Lusa) - Portugal's President, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, has said that he shares the concerns of Prime Minister Luís Montenegro regarding Gaza and the appeal for aid to enter the territory, also made by Pope Leo XIV.
This position was stated in a short note published on Wednesday afternoon on the official website of the Presidency Office.
The Portuguese head of state "fully shares the deep concerns of the Portuguese prime minister, which are identical to the appeal made by Pope Leo XIV, regarding the humanitarian situation in Gaza," the note reads.
Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday called for "decent humanitarian aid" to enter Gaza and for "an end to hostilities, whose atrocious price is being paid by children, the elderly and the sick".
"The situation in the Gaza Strip is increasingly worrying and painful," the Pope said, quoted by the France-Presse (AFP) news agency.
The prime minister and leader of the PSD, Luís Montenegro, on Wednesday condemned the situation in Gaza in a message on social network X.
"The humanitarian situation in Gaza is absolutely intolerable. It is imperative to allow the immediate, safe and unhindered entry of all humanitarian aid to save the lives of millions of human beings, including children, women and the sick," wrote Luís Montenegro.
This message appeared on the day of reports of an Israeli army attack on a diplomatic delegation visiting Jenin in the West Bank, which included a Portuguese diplomat, prompting the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to summon the Israeli ambassador to Lisbon.
A statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that "Portugal strongly condemns the Israeli army's attack on the diplomatic delegation visiting Jenin in the West Bank," which "undermines international law."
According to the Portuguese government, the delegation "included more than 20 diplomats and media representatives, among them Ambassador Frederico Nascimento, head of the Portuguese diplomatic mission in Ramallah, who is safe".
Israel announced on Tuesday that it had allowed some trucks carrying baby food into Gaza, on the same day that the World Health Organisation (WHO) reported that two million Palestinians were starving.
The organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) accused Israel of only allowing "ridiculously insufficient" aid into Gaza so as not to be accused of "starving the population to death".
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