The Vatican "is considering" the possibility of a meeting between Pope Francis and relatives of the Hamas hostages while asking that there be no "escalation" of the conflict in the Middle East. "We are thinking about this, we have seen that they are here and they have been received at the Italian level, for us a decision has not yet been made, I think it will be made today (Friday)," said Vatican Secretary of State Pietro Parolin when asked. about a possible meeting of the hostages' relatives with the pontiff. The Italian cardinal's statements come amid the presence in Italy of a group of relatives of people kidnapped by the Islamist group Hamas on October 7, which began a new spiral of violence in the Middle East and opened the doors to an Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip that has already caused more than 7,000 victims, most of them civilians. "We hope there will not be an escalation. The issue is very closely related to the release of the hostages, but if the issue of the release of the hostages can be resolved, it would be less urgent to take ground action," Parolin said in dialogue with the press. in Rome. This Friday, in the midst of the Holy See's negotiations to avoid a growth in the conflict and after the Pope's repeated calls for the release of hostages and a stop to attacks on civilians, Francis held a meeting in the Vatican with five Christian leaders. in the Middle East to seek solutions to the conflict between Israel and Palestine and find ways to guarantee the safety of civilians in the area. His Beatitude Ibrahim Isaac Sedrak, Patriarch of Alexandria of the Copts (Egypt); His Beatitude Youssef Absi, Patriarch of Antioch of the Greco-Melkites (Syria); His Beatitude Cardinal Béchara Boutros Raï, Patriarch of Antioch of the Maronites (Lebanon), in addition to the cardinal His Beatitude Louis Raphaël Sako, Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans (Iraq) and His Beatitude Raphaël Bedros XXI Minassian, Patriarch of Cilicia of the Armenians (Lebanon) met this Friday with the pontiff in the Library on the second floor of the Apostolic Palace in a meeting of high political and religious, Vatican sources informed Télam. The meeting also takes place just over a month before the Pope arrives in the Middle East to participate in the COP28 climate summit at the beginning of December, a meeting with the seal of the United Nations.