Our first prayer is always for water—to use in the bathroom, to wash our faces—because the city’s water arrives only once every 10 days.My family and I left Gaza City, where we lived for years, following an order from the IDF to move south.

Pope Francis met a delegation of Israeli hostages freed by Hamas at the Vatican on Thursday (November 14). Some held pictures of loved ones who remain in captivity.

The delegation was led by the Hostage Family Forum, the Foreign Ministry, Israeli embassies in Rome and the Vatican, the government's hostage unit, and the Defense Ministry.