Newly inaugurated Pope Leo XIV on Wednesday made an appeal to end hostility in Gaza and called for humanitarian aid to enter the war-torn territory with reports suggesting a worsening outlook.

Pope Leo XIV says the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, "the heartbreaking price of which is paid by children, the elderly, the sick," must end and food must be allowed in.

Israeli strikes continued to pound the Gaza Strip Wednesday, killing at least 82 people, including several women and a week-old infant, according to the

An estimated 14,000 babies could die without essential aid according to the U.N. as Israel military operations intensify.

Pope Leo XIV called Wednesday for humanitarian aid to reach the Gaza Strip and for an end to the “heartbreaking” toll on its people, as he presided over his first general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

Calling the hunger crisis in the war-torn territory “heart-rending,” the pope used his first general audience to highlight the issue.

A U.S.-backed organization aims to start work in the Gaza Strip by the end of May overseeing a new model of aid distribution in the Palestinian enclave, but the United Nations says the plan is not impartial or neutral,