Pope laments war in Holy Land in solemn Christmas Eve celebration

He Pope Francisco lamented on Sunday the war unleashed in the land where Jesus was born, where the Christmas Eve only brought new bloodshed and intensified fighting throughout the Gaza Strip.

Hours before midnight on Christmas in the Holy Land, Palestinian health authorities reported

at least 70 dead in an Israeli airstrike in central Gaza. The Israeli military spokesman’s office said it was studying the report.

Israel reported the highest two-day death toll for its troops in more than a month.

Separately, the head of the Islamic Jihad militant group joined the talks in Cairo, a small sign at least that diplomacy was still alive.

But in Bethlehem, the Palestinian West Bank city where Jesus Christ is believed to have been born in a stable 2,000 years ago, clergy canceled traditional celebrations for the first time in living memory.

“Tonight, our heart is in Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace is rejected once again by the useless logic of war, by the clash of weapons that even today prevents him from finding space in the world.”said the Pope during the celebration of Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

Palestinian Christians earlier held a Christmas vigil in Bethlehem with candlelight singing and prayers for peace in Gaza, instead of the usual celebrations.

There was no large tree, the usual centerpiece of Bethlehem’s Christmas celebrations. In the churches, figures of the Nativity scene were placed among rubble and barbed wire in solidarity with the population of Gaza.

After the failure of a week-long truce earlier this month, fighting on the ground has only intensified, with the war spreading from the northern Gaza Strip to the entire length of the enclave.

“Difficult day”

The Israeli army said 10 of its soldiers died in the last day, following five deaths the previous day, its worst two-day losses since early November.

“This is a difficult morning, after a very difficult day of fighting in Gaza”Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting on Sunday. “The war is demanding a very high cost from us; However, we have no choice (but) to continue fighting.”

In a later video message he said troops will continue fighting in Gaza until “total victory” about Hamas, and added: “We are doing everything possible to safeguard the lives of our warriors.”

Israel has come under increasing pressure in recent weeks from its closest ally, the United States, to reduce its military campaign and reduce the number of civilian deaths.

The Israeli military has mourned the deaths of civilians, but blames Hamas for operating in densely populated areas or using civilians as human shields, a charge the group denies.

On Friday, Washington for the first time lifted its veto on a U.N. Security Council resolution on the war, allowing it to pass after watering down text calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities.

Separate diplomatic efforts, mediated by Egypt and Qatar, to achieve a new truce that would allow the release of hostages still held by Gaza militants have yielded few public results, although Washington described “very serious” last week’s conversations.

Islamic Jihad, a smaller militant group allied to Hamas, stated that a delegation led by its exiled leader, Ziad al-Nakhlala, was in Cairo on Sunday. His arrival followed talks attended by Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in recent days.

So far, militant groups have said they will not discuss the release of hostages unless Israel ends its war in Gaza, while the Israelis say they are willing to discuss only a temporary pause in the fighting.

The Cairo talks will focus on “the ways to end Israeli aggression against our people”, declared an Islamic Jihad official. The delegation will reaffirm the group’s position that any hostage exchange will have to guarantee the release of all Palestinians imprisoned in Israel, “after a ceasefire is achieved,” the official said.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which have sworn Israel’s destruction, are still believed to be holding more than 100 hostages of the 240 they captured during the October 7 assault on Israeli cities, which killed 1,200 people.

Since then, Israel has laid siege to the Gaza Strip and leveled much of it, with more than 20,400 confirmed dead, according to Gaza authorities, and thousands more people under the rubble. The vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have been driven from their homes and, according to the United Nations, conditions are catastrophic.

On Saturday, the Israeli chief of staff declared that his forces had largely achieved operational control in northern Gaza and would expand their operations in the south.

However, residents say fighting has intensified lately in northern districts, especially in Jabalia, which Israeli forces bombed with airstrikes overnight and on Sunday. On Saturday, the tanks moved into the city.

In the central part of the Gaza Strip, doctors said six Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a house in the Bureij refugee camp, where the Israeli army ordered people to evacuate and head west toward the city of Deir Al-Balah.

Joudat Imad, 55, a father of six, had to leave an area of ​​the Nusseirat refugee camp in central Gaza after a map published by the army marked it as a place people should evacuate.

“I was lucky to get a tent in Rafah“he told Reuters by phone. “From owning two buildings to sheltering in a tent waiting for help, that is what this brutal war has turned us into. “The world is sick and inhuman because it cannot see the brutality of Israel and cannot stop this war of destruction and hunger.”