Pop superstar Madonna has urged Pope Leo to “please go to Gaza and bring your light to the children before it’s too late”, Al Jazeera reports.

“As a mother, I cannot bear to watch their suffering. The children of the world belong to everyone,” she said in a post on Instagram.

“You are the only one of us who cannot be denied entry. We need the humanitarian gates to be fully opened to save those innocent children,” the singer added.

Pope Leo has repeatedly spoken in support of Palestinians in Gaza, following in the footsteps of Pope Francis.

The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, and the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem, Theophilos III, visited Gaza last month, describing the situation there as “morally unacceptable”.