Palestinians in Gaza mourned the passing of Pope Francis, the first Latin American leader of the Roman Catholic Church, on Monday (April 21). In an Easter Sunday message read aloud by an aide the day before he died, the pontiff had reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza - a conflict he had long railed against.

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.

Pope Francis called to check in on a Christian congregation in Gaza sheltering at their church almost every night since the Gaza war began. "Today we feel like we are orphans," a spokesperson says.