Why did Israel express condolences for the death of Pope Francis and then delete it?

The flow of condolences from political circles around the world continues regarding the recently deceased leader of Catholics – Pope Francis. However, in recent days, Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs' removal of its condolence message regarding Pope Francis's death from social media has attracted the attention of the media and the public.

In the condolence message, the Israeli Foreign Ministry included a photo of the Pope praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem and posted it on its social media pages. However, this message was soon deleted. An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson commented on this situation as a "mistake" and made the following statement:

“This tweet and posts were issued by mistake. We have responded appropriately to the Pope's statements regarding Israel and the war conducted from the Gaza Strip while he was alive. Now, we have no intention of doing so after his death,” said the official spokesperson of the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

It should be noted that during his life, Pope Francis was a proponent of peace in the Palestine-Israel conflict and strongly condemned the war. In particular, he criticized the Israeli army's attacks on the civilian population in Gaza, especially children in schools, and unarmed Christians.

Since October 7, 2023, more than 51,000 Palestinians have been killed as a result of Israel's bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Pope Francis has sharply criticized these events several times, which analysts believe has contributed to the Israeli government's cold attitude towards the Pope.

So far, only President Isaac Herzog has expressed condolences regarding the Pope's death in Israel, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar have remained silent on the matter.

Israel's former ambassador to the Vatican, Rafael Shyuts, criticized the government's attitude, calling it a "mistaken decision."

“In my opinion, this is a very big mistake. It is not appropriate for us to make such calculations after someone has passed away. After all, we are talking about not just a state leader, but a spiritual leader of more than a billion people, a part of humanity,” said the former diplomat.

It should be noted that the leader of the world's Catholics, Pope Francis, passed away on April 21 at the age of 88. His funeral will take place on April 26.

So far, the Israeli government has not made any additional statements regarding this situation. This incident is causing heated discussions in the international community.