Vatican | AFP
“Our hearts are in Bethlehem tonight,” Pope Francis, 87, said this Sunday (24), at a time when the occupied West Bank city where, according to Christian tradition, Jesus was born, celebrated a Christmas Eve overshadowed by war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Around 6,500 worshipers attended the traditional midnight mass in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, and thousands more watched the celebration on large screens outside St. Peter's Square.
According to Israeli authorities, around 1,200 people, most of them civilians, were killed in Hamas' bloody attack on Israel on October 7th. Palestinian terrorists also kidnapped around 240 people, 129 of whom are still in captivity in the Gaza Strip, according to Tel Aviv.
In response, Israel launched an air and ground offensive into Palestinian territory that had left 20,424 people, including women and children, dead as of Sunday, according to the Hamascontrolled local health ministry.
The pope has frequently denounced attacks on civilians in the current conflict. “Our hearts are tonight in Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace continues to be rejected by the lost logic of war, with the noise of weapons that, even today, prevent him from finding refuge in the world,” Francis said at midnight Mass .
“[Jesus] He fights injustice not from above and with strength, but from below and with love; It does not erupt with limitless force, but descends to our borders,” added the Pope, who delivered the Mass in Italian with an official translation into seven languages.
Despite the antiwar message, Francis did not specifically mention Israel or Gaza during midnight mass. Earlier at noon, the Pope remembered “the brothers and sisters who suffer from war” in the Angelus prayer. “Let us think of Palestine, Israel and Ukraine,” he said.
In solidarity with residents of the Israelioccupied Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Christian community has canceled most Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem. Manger Square in the center of the city remained without Christmas trees and nativity scenes this year.
The City Council announced in November that staff would take down Christmas decorations that had been up in neighborhoods for years. According to local authorities, the measure is also a tribute to the “martyrs,” the Palestinians killed in the war.
Every year on December 24th, several Christmas celebrations usually take place in the region. One of the most famous is a procession that leaves Jerusalem and crosses the wall that separates the West Bank. Musicians take part in the walk that ends at the Basilica of the Nativity in Belém.
Also this Sunday, the Israeli army announced that it had intensified its operations against Hamas in the southern Gaza Strip, despite calls from the US government for the country to protect Palestinian civilians.
After Gaza City in the north of the territory, “we are turning south and concentrating our main operations in Khan Yunis, another Hamas stronghold,” army spokesman Jonathan Conricus told American broadcaster Fox News.
Hundreds of thousands of displaced people from the north of the territory sought refuge in Khan Yunis. A spokesman for the Hamascontrolled health ministry in the Gaza Strip said 166 Palestinians had been killed in the past 24 hours. More than 54,000 people have been injured since the conflict began. Nearly all of the Strip's 2.3 million residents were displaced.