Pop icon Madonna has made an appeal to Pope Leo XIV, urging him to visit the blockaded Gaza Strip amid a starvation crisis that has sparked international outrage.

“You are the only one of us that cannot be denied entry,” the U.S. singer wrote on social media platform X late on Monday. “We need the humanitarian gates to be fully opened to save these innocent children. There is no more time.”

Marking the 25th birthday of her son Rocco Ritchie on Monday, Madonna also announced plans to donate to humanitarian organisations working in Gaza.

“I feel the best gift I can give to him as a mother is to ask everyone to do what they can to help save the innocent children caught in the crossfire in Gaza,” she wrote.

A UN agency said late last week that “acute malnutrition among children in Gaza has reached the highest levels.” In July alone, nearly 12,000 children under five were identified as acutely malnourished, with another 2,500 found to suffer from severe acute malnutrition.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, this is the most life-threatening form of conflict.

Israel controls access roads to Gaza and has sealed off the coastal area. Very little aid got into Gaza from March through May, when Israel began allowing in deliveries using a controversial private system that bypasses traditional UN agencies.

Under pressure from allies, Israel recently began permitting larger convoys into the territory, as aid airdrops take place overhead.

On Sunday, Irish rock band U2 issued a stinging critique of the Israeli government’s actions.

“We know Hamas are using starvation as a weapon in the war, but now so too is Israel, and I feel revulsion for the moral failure,” frontman Bono wrote.

(dpa/NAN)