Pope Francis on Saturday again condemned Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, a day after an Israeli government minister publicly denounced the pontiff for suggesting the global community should study whether the military offensive there constitutes a genocide of the Palestinian people.Francis opened his annual Christmas address to the Catholic cardinals who lead the Vatican's various departments with what appeared to be a reference to Israeli airstrikes on Friday that killed at least 25 Palestinians in Gaza."Yesterday, children were bombed," said the pope. "This is cruelty. This is not war. I wanted to say this because it touches the heart."Gaza's civil defence rescue agency reported that an Israeli air strike killed 10 members of a family on Friday in the northern part of the territory, including seven children.The pope, as leader of the 1.4-billion-member Roman Catholic Church, is usually careful about taking sides in conflicts, but he has recently been more outspoken about Israel's military campaign against Palestinian group Hamas.In book excerpts published last month, the pontiff said some international experts said that "what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide".Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli sharply criticised those comments in an unusual open letter published by Italian newspaper Il Foglio on Friday. Chikli said the pope's remarks amounted to a "trivialisation" of the term genocide.At the end of November, Francis said that "the invader's arrogance... prevails over dialogue" in "Palestine", a rare position that contrasts with the tradition of neutrality of the Holy See.Francis also said on Saturday that the Catholic bishop of Jerusalem, known as a patriarch, had tried to enter the Gaza Strip on Friday to visit Catholics there, but was denied entry.The patriarch's office told Reuters it was not able to comment on the pope's remarks about the patriarch being denied entry.The Holy See has recognised the State of Palestine since 2013, with which it maintains diplomatic relations, and it supports the two-state solution.