Pope Francis will receive Israel’s former President Shimon Peres at the Vatican on Thursday, the Holy See has confirmed.
The visit comes almost three months since Peres took part in the Pope’s Invocation for Peace in the Holy Land, together with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I.
The meeting will also take place in the wake of a seven week conflict between Israel and Hamas that cost over 2,000 lives, most of them Palestinian civilians.
Peres, who has visited Pope Francis several times during this pontificate, stood down as Israeli President on July 24.
