Prince Charles reacts as he meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during a visit in Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank

The heir to the British throne expressed sadness on Friday over the suffering and hardship faced by Palestinians and called for “a just and lasting peace” in the Middle East on the third day of his visit to the Holy Land.

Prince Charles met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem, prayed with Christian clergy and visited the grave of his grandmother, who is buried on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives and is honored by Israel for saving Jews during the Holocaust.

“It breaks my heart… that we should continue to see so much suffering and division. No one arriving in Bethlehem today could miss the signs of continued hardship and the situation you face,” Charles, the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth, said on his first official visit to the occupied Palestinian Territories.

“…I can only join you, and all communities, in your prayers for a just and lasting peace… It is my dearest wish that the future will bring freedom, justice and equality to all Palestinians, enabling you to thrive and to prosper.”

His five-mile (eight-km) journey to Bethlehem involved traversing an Israeli military checkpoint to reach the other side of a concrete wall that Israel built through West Bank territory it captured in the 1967 Middle East war.