Benedict XVI expressed “great pain” over the suicide bombing in Tel Aviv which killed nine people last week. The Israeli government has blamed Hamas for the attack.

Benedict XVI expressed “great pain” over the suicide bombing in Tel Aviv which killed nine people last week. The Israeli government has blamed Hamas for the attack.

The Pope made these comments at the end of the general audience last Wednesday, attended by more than 60,000 people.

“I feel the duty to express the most firm condemnation of such a terrorist act,” said the Holy Father. “It is not with execrable acts like that that the legitimate rights of a people can be protected.

“May the Lord, Prince of Peace, be close to Israelis and Palestinians so that they do not let themselves be dragged into a tragic drift, but that they resume the steps that lead to living in peace and security, one with the other, as children of the same Father who is in heaven.”

This was the first suicide bombing since the radical Hamas party took control of the Palestinian government. Palestinian officials have not denounced the attack.