JERUSALEM: Pope Francis made an impassioned plea on Sunday for the protection of children at a mass in Bethlehem’s Manger Square in the West Bank, where rights groups say minors are mistreated by Israel.

“Children are crying, they are crying a lot, and their crying challenges us,” the Argentine pontiff told thousands of Roman Catholic pilgrims in Bethlehem, revered as the birthplace of Jesus, on the second day of his Middle East pilgrimage.

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