Pope Francis' final gift to Gaza’s children

Pope Francis’s iconic popemobile, used during his 2014 Holy Land pilgrimage, is being transformed into a mobile health clinic to aid children in Gaza, Vatican News announced Sunday.

The late pontiff, who passed away the day after Easter Sunday, entrusted the vehicle to Caritas Jerusalem to address the humanitarian crisis in the war-torn region.

Caritas Jerusalem is retrofitting the popemobile with medical equipment, including rapid infection tests, diagnostic tools, vaccines, suture kits, and other critical supplies, to create a fully equipped mobile health station.

The clinic will be staffed by doctors and medics and will deliver care to isolated Gaza communities lacking access to functioning medical facilities, once safe humanitarian access is restored. “It’s not just a vehicle; it’s a message that the world has not forgotten about the children of Gaza,” said Peter Brune, Secretary General of Caritas Sweden.

Throughout his pontificate, he called for ceasefires in the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Hamas conflicts, including a final plea on Easter Sunday (a day before he died).

Francis maintained near-nightly contact with Gaza’s Holy Family Church, the enclave’s only Catholic church, which has served as a shelter for Christians and Muslims during IDF operations following Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

The project builds on Francis’s legacy of ignoring Jewish suffering and focusing only on advocacy for Gaza. This even extended to a controversial Christmas Nativity scene featuring baby Jesus in a Palestinian keffiyeh, a symbol tied to pro-Palestine activism, that was quickly removed after public outcry.

“This vehicle represents the love, care, and closeness shown by His Holiness for the most vulnerable,” said Anton Asfar, Secretary General of Caritas Jerusalem, which has over 100 staff dedicated to healthcare delivery in Gaza.

Photos show the popemobile being carefully adapted to meet the needs of Gaza’s children, many of whom suffer from preventable conditions due to the region’s devastated infrastructure. “This is a concrete, life-saving intervention at a time when the health system in Gaza has almost completely collapsed,” Brune added.

Pope Francis never made any secret of his feelings about the Israel - Hamas war. He never pretended to be impartial and he never even tried to fake concern for Jews and Israeli victims of Hamas' devastating onslaught.

Even after his death, he still manages to send pro-Gaza messages: Hideous but not entirely surprising.

CNN and Vatican News contributed to this report.