CNA Staff, Oct 6, 2025 / 17:13 pm

Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, called the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal brokered by the U.S. a “first step” toward peace.

In a statement, the terrorist group Hamas agreed to release the remaining Israeli hostages, living and dead, in the first steps of a peace deal brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump.

Twenty living hostages and the bodies of 28 dead hostages are believed to remain in Gaza as the second anniversary of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack — the largest massacre of Jews since World War II — approaches.

Pizzaballa called the ceasefire deal “an important and long-awaited first step” in an Oct. 4 letter to the faithful.

The 20-point plan includes deradicalizing Gaza into a terror-free zone that doesn’t “po

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