Pope Francis appears on the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica on Easter Sunday (Reuters)
Pope Francis has died at the age of 88, the Vatican has announced, after his final address on Easter Sunday called for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The pontiff, who was the first head of the Catholic Church to hail from the Americas in centuries, became pope in 2013.
His death at his Vatican residence was confirmed on Monday morning.
The pope was hospitalised in February with double pneumonia.
He appeared on Easter Sunday from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica as an aide read out a benediction in which the pope condemned the “deplorable humanitarian situation” caused by Israel’s onslaught on Gaza.
“I express my closeness to the sufferings… of all the Israeli people and the Palestinian people,” the pope said.
“I appeal to the warring parties: call a ceasefire, release the hostages and come to the aid of a starving people that aspires to a future of peace.”
Daily phone call to Gaza
The leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics regularly publicly condemned Israel’s war on Gaza before he was hospitalised.
He suggested in November that the onslaught could be classed as genocide.
“According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of genocide,” the pontiff wrote in a new book, Hope Never Disappoints: Pilgrims Towards a Better World.
“This should be studied carefully to determine whether (the situation) corresponds to the technical definition formulated by jurists and international organisations.”
In December, the Israeli foreign ministry even summoned the Vatican’s ambassador, Archbishop Adolfo Tito Yllana, to express its outrage over the pope’s strong criticism of Israel’s abuses against Palestinians.
It came after the pope accused Israel of committing acts of “cruelty” by targeting schools and hospitals, saying that “children were bombed. This is cruelty, not war.”
Throughout Israel’s one-and-a-half-year war on Gaza, he made a daily phone call to the enclave’s only Catholic parish to offer support and prayers.
He resumed the practice while still hospitalised after making a partial recovery in February.
