Pope Francis regularly called a church in Gaza to ask how residents there were doing during the Israel-Hamas war. He is remembered as a defender and consoling presence.

For months, the pontiff spoke by telephone almost every night with people sheltering in a Catholic church in the battered enclave, a ritual he tried to keep up in the hospital.

The late Pope Francis called Gaza’s only Catholic church every day during the war between Israel and Hamas, even during what he called his “period of trial” when he was hospitalised for nearly 40 days.