Online Desk: Head of the Catholic Church Pope Benedict XVI today sought a “sovereign Palestinian homeland” offering his strongest public backing yet for an independent Palestinian state standing beside its President Mahmoud Abbas as he is on a visit to Jerusalem.

“The Holy See supports the right of your people to a sovereign Palestinian homeland in the land of your forefathers, secure and at peace with its neighbors, within internationally recognized borders,” international media outlets quoted him as saying on arrival in the holy city.

Abbas was alongside the Pope, when he said he understands the Palestinians sufferings while Israeli tanks and troops pressed towards Gaza City on Thursday but met fierce resistance from Hamas.

The pontiff also called for a Palestinian homeland on Monday in presence of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he arrived in Israel on a five-day visit.

According to reports the Palestinian President invoked the concrete separation barrier and the occupation in his greeting to the pontiff.

“In this Holy Land, the occupation still continues building separation walls. . . Instead of building the bridge that can link us, they (Israel) are using the force of occupation to force Muslims and Christians to emigrate,” he said.

After meeting with Abbas, the Pope was to tour the Church of the Nativity, built over the grotto where tradition holds Jesus was born, and then visit a Palestinian refugee camp.

Netanyahu says Palestinians were not ready to rule themselves as he so far resisted international pressure to endorse the idea of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

The US-based AP news agency said Israelis have criticized the German-born pope for failing to adequately express remorse for the Holocaust, while the Palestinians are pressing him to draw attention to the difficult conditions of life under Israeli rule.

The Pope on Wednesday said a two-state solution was needed for Israel and Palestine to put an end to wars such as the current one and called for a special status for Jerusalem.

Israel has consistently rejected suggestions that the city, which is sacred to Christians, Muslims and Jews, could have a special, or international status.

In an interview with Italian state television RAI’s TG1 news channel on Wednesday, the Pope expressed hope a regional escalation could be avoided in the conflict as he has trusts in “human wisdom” to avoid escalation of war.

The Vatican News, meanwhile, said the war that broke out in Israel and Palestine could witness a “global escalation” but he hopes it does not happen by trusting in “human wisdom”.

“(Those are) two peoples who have to live together. With that wise solution, two states. The Oslo accords, two well-defined states and Jerusalem with a special status,” he told the Italian broadcaster.

In 1993, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organisation leader Yasser Arafat shook hands on the Oslo Accords establishing limited Palestinian autonomy.

“Every war is a defeat. Nothing is solved with war . . . Nothing. Everything is gained with peace, with dialogue,” the pontiff said.

The Pope said the world was going through a “very dark hour”.

“One cannot find the ability to reflect clearly and at the darkest hour I will add: one more defeat. It has been like this since the last world war,
from 1945 until now, one defeat after another, because the wars have not stopped,” he said.

The Pope said he speaks every day by telephone to the religious who are in Gaza. “I call the Egyptian assistant parish priest, Father Yussuf, every day and he tells me, ‘In the parish (township) we have 563 people, all Christians and also some Muslims. Sick children cared for by Mother Teresa’s nuns'”.

“In this small parish, there are 563 people! Every day I try to accompany them. For the moment, thank God, the Israeli forces respect that parish.”

The Pope’s comments on Thursday was the third day of his pilgrimage meant largely to boost interfaith relations while the US-based AP news agency said the effort “has been fraught with political land mines” so far.

In Bethlehem, Benedict delivered a special message of solidarity to the 1.4 million Palestinians isolated in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip though he has no plans to visit the enclave under ruthless Israeli military assaults.

“In a special way, my heart goes out to the pilgrims from war-torn Gaza: I ask you to bring back to your families and your communities my warm embrace, and my sorrow for the loss, the hardship and the suffering you have had to endure,” the pope told thousands of Palestinians.

AP news agency reported the Palestinians packed an open-air Mass in Manger Square, some hoisting Palestinian and Vatican flags and pictures of the pontiff and Jesus.

In a gesture for the pope’s visit, Israel allowed nearly 100 members of Gaza’s tiny Christian community to travel to the West Bank through Israeli territory that separates the two Palestinian areas.

According to AP while the Pope acknowledged Palestinian difficulties, he stopped short of blaming Israel saying “I know how much you (Palestinians) have suffered and continue to suffer as a result of the turmoil that has afflicted this land for decades”.

Bishop of the Holy Family Catholic church in Gaza City George Hernandz, meanwhile, said the Pope’s singling out of Gaza “means that Gaza is in the pope’s heart” and called the pontiff’s comments “a very courageous speech and we are satisfied”.

The pope, who has described himself as a “pilgrim of peace,” has been forced to navigate some of the touchiest political issues as he makes his way through Israel and the West Bank – his first visit to the region as the head of the Roman Catholic church.