Pope Francis criticised on Monday what he called the "shameful inability" of the international community to end the war in the Middle East, one year after Hamas' devastating attack on Israel.

In the past year in the Gaza Strip, Israel has bombed more than 40,000 targets, found 4,700 tunnel shafts and destroyed 1,000 rocket launcher sites, the military said on Monday's one-year anniversary of the Hamas-led militant attacks that triggered Israel's assault on the enclave.

The Israel Defense Forces said it intercepted most of a barrage of rockets fired toward Tel Aviv by Iran-backed Hamas, as fighting escalated Monday after a year of war.