VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis spent another night without incident in hospital, the Vatican said on Friday, after a week in the hospital where the 88-year-old pontiff is being treated for bronchitis and pneumonia.
“The night went well, this morning Pope Francis got up and had breakfast,” the Vatican said in a regular morning update.
It was the latest in a series of incrementally positive updates this week from the Vatican, which has regularly been publishing information – however modest – about the Argentine pope’s state of health.
Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital last Friday with bronchitis, but it later developed into pneumonia in both lungs, sparking widespread alarm.
But the Vatican said Thursday he continued to not have a fever and his “hemodynamic (blood flow) parameters continue to be stable.”
Vatican sources have said the pope continues to keep up with his correspondence and has been working with his collaborators.
Cardinal Matteo Maria Zuppi, the head of Italy’s bishops conference, expressed confidence Thursday that the pope was “on the right path.”
“The fact that the pope had breakfast, read the newspapers, received people, means that we are on the right path to a full recovery, which we hope will happen soon,” Zuppi said.
Pope Francis passes another calm night in hospital: Vatican
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Pope Francis passes another calm night in hospital: Vatican
- Pope Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital last Friday with bronchitis
- But it later developed into pneumonia in both lungs, sparking widespread alarm
UN chief calls on Israel to reverse NGOs ban in Gaza
- In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there since the war broke out
- Israel on Thursday suspended 37 foreign humanitarian organizations from accessing the Gaza Strip after they had refused to share lists of their Palestinian employees with government officials
UNITED NATIONS, United States: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Friday for Israel to end a ban on humanitarian agencies that provided aid in Gaza, saying he was “deeply concerned” at the development.
Guterres “calls for this measure to be reversed, stressing that international non-governmental organizations are indispensable to life-saving humanitarian work and that the suspension risks undermining the fragile progress made during the ceasefire,” his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
“This recent action will further exacerbate the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians,” he added.
Israel on Thursday suspended 37 foreign humanitarian organizations from accessing the Gaza Strip after they had refused to share lists of their Palestinian employees with government officials.
The ban includes Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which has 1,200 staff members in the Palestinian territories — the majority of whom are in Gaza.
NGOs included in the ban have been ordered to cease their operations by March 1.
Several NGOS have said the requirements contravene international humanitarian law or endanger their independence.
Israel says the new regulation aims to prevent bodies it accuses of supporting terrorism from operating in the Palestinian territories.
On Thursday, 18 Israel-based left-wing NGOs denounced the decision to ban their international peers, saying “the new registration framework violates core humanitarian principles of independence and neutrality.”
A fragile ceasefire has been in place since October, following a deadly war waged by Israel in response to Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there since the war broke out.
Nearly 80 percent of buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged by the war, according to UN data, leaving infrastructure decimated.
About 1.5 million of Gaza’s more than two million residents have lost their homes, said Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza.
