Pope Francis gives an emotional impromptu appeal for peace during his weekly Angelus speech on Sunday at St. Peter's square of the Vatican City.

During his regular address, the church leader discussed the hundredth anniversary of World War I and became emotional when he tackled countries currently at war, particularly the Middle East, Iraq and Ukraine.

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"Please stop! I ask you with all my heart, it's time to stop. Stop, please! Brothers and sisters, never war, never war!" the pontiff pleaded to the faithful with so much emotion.

He stressed his worry about the children affected by the fighting, though he did not refer directly to the conflcit at the Gaza Strip as the truce ended on the same day of his address where over a thousand peopel were killed including 218 youth.

"Dead children, injured children, mutilated children, orphaned children, children whose toys are things left over from war, children who can't smile anymore," he said.

The 218 dead children, as young as 3 months old, have been stuck in the middle of the fighting in which the death toll is now at 1,058 with 43 military casualties.

Israel broke the truce minutes before a thunderous artillery onslaught shook the Gaza Strip.

According to Israel's statement, it broke the "humanitarian ceasefire" due to continuous rocket assaults from Hamas.

Almost 200,000 Palestinians fled their homes to seek refuge in United Nations properties.

The "humanitarian ceasefire" lasted for 12 hours only from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. on Saturday and decided to extend it for another 24 hours that was later opposed by Hamas which launched a series of rockets at Ashkelon and Tel Aviv.

Beginning at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Hamas then called for a ceasefire of its own but still continued to fire rockets to Israeli cities, reports stated.

TagsPope Francis, Israel, Gaza, Hamas, World War I