Pope Francis slams Israeli strikes on Gaza schools as 'ugly'

Pope Francis has decried the killing of Palestinian children in Israeli military strikes in besieged Gaza, calling bombings of schools, on the "presumption" of striking Hamas resistance fighters, "ugly".

Aboard the flight back to Rome from Singapore on Friday, the pontiff expressed doubt about an end to Israel's genocidal war on Gaza.

"I am sorry to have to say this," the pope said. "But I do not think that they are taking steps to make peace."

Francis was speaking in a press conference with journalists after a demanding 12-day tour across Southeast Asia and Oceania.

He said he speaks on the phone with members of a Catholic parish in Gaza "every day" and "they tell me ugly things, difficult things".

"Please, when you see the bodies of killed children, when you see that, under the presumption that some guerrillas are there, a school is bombed, this is ugly," the 87-year-old pontiff said.

"It is ugly."

Truce calls amid genocide

The pope, who has supported calls for a ceasefire in the conflict and for the release of Israeli captives held by Hamas, said "sometimes I think it's a war that is too much, too much".

Since October 7, the Israeli military has reduced besieged Gaza to rubble, displaced almost all 2.4 million residents, killed more than 41,000 Palestinians and wounded nearly 100,000 others.

But experts and some studies say this is just a tip of an iceberg and the actual Palestinian death toll could be around 200,000.

Some 10,000 Palestinians are feared buried under the rubble of their bombed homes. Another 10,000 have been abducted by Israel and dumped in Israeli jails and torture chambers.

The United Nations says the war has left Gaza's economy "in ruins". Israel is accused of carrying out genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and occupied West Bank at the International Court of Justice.

Israel's top leaders are being pursued by the prosecutors of International Criminal Court, who are seeking arrest warrants for the war crimes in Gaza.