POPE URGES TRUCE IN GAZA AFTER 250 KILLED IN 24 HOURS

▶ Sombre mood grips region as pontiff uses Vatican speech to call for peace

Pope Francis yesterday called for an end to Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip after 250 people were killed in 24 hours.

The 86-year-old pontiff used his Urbi et Orbi – or to the city and to the world – message on Christmas Day to urge the fighting to stop.

“My heart grieves for the victims of the abominable attack of October 7 and I reiterate my urgent appeal for the liberation of those still being held hostage,” he told thousands of faithful gathered in St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, referring to the Hamas assault on Israel.

“I plead for an end to the military operations with their appalling harvest of innocent civilian victims and call for a solution to the desperate humanitarian situation by an opening to the provision of humanitarian aid.”

The Pope called for “sincere and persevering dialogue between the parties, sustained by strong political will and the support of the international community”.

Israel’s 12-week military operation has killed more than 20,600 Palestinians, two thirds of them women and children, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry said. In 24 hours between Sunday and yesterday, more than 250 were killed and 500 injured, the ministry added.

The war began after Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 and taking 240 hostages.

Meanwhile, a senior commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was killed during an Israeli air strike near Damascis in Syria yesterday, Iranian state media confirmed, days before the anniversary of the death of former IRGC leader Maj Gen Qassem Suleimani.

Seyyed Razi was responsible for “co-ordinating the military alliance between Syria and Iran,” Reuters reported, citing security sources.

In Gaza, Jordan parachuted in supplies to Christians sheltering in a church as King Abdullah II lamented the absence of joy and peace in the region.

A Royal Jordanian Air Force plane dropped food and humanitarian aid to people stranded in the St Porphyrius Church in Gaza city on Sunday. About 800 are believed to have sought refuge in the centuries-old Greek Orthodox church.

“While the world celebrates Christmas, joy and peace are absent among Christian people in the Holy Land, which cannot enjoy peace in light of the brutal aggression against the people in Gaza and the restrictions on worshippers in Jerusalem and Bethlehem,” King Abdullah said. Jordan previously dropped supplies to its Gaza City field hospital.

The war in Gaza meant the Christmas spirit was dampened across the region.

In Iraq, Christians observed muted celebrations in protest against what they consider injustices by the government against the dwindling community, but also to show solidarity with Gaza, said Fr Nadheer Dako of St Joseph Cathedral in Baghdad.

In southern Lebanon, where a cross-border conflict between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia has continued to intensify, the Christmas mood was also sombre. The streets of Christian-majority villages remained bare, lacking the festive decorations that would

ordinarily line buildings, roads and lamp posts.

“We didn’t decorate the streets this year because of the security situation and the economic situation,” said Josef Salameh, Mayor of Qlayaa, a majority Maronite Catholic town close to the border.

“We don’t have peace of mind. Most people didn’t really go out of their way to decorate their homes either, aside from what was already available in people’s homes.”

He said fear of the unknown had curbed festivities, but religious services – “the meaning of Christmas as it exists in our hearts” – continued as usual.

Over 70,000 people have been displaced from southern Lebanon by the conflict, the International Organisation for Migration has said.

Since the outbreak of the Israel-Gaza war, Hezbollah has sought to distract Israel by engaging it along the Lebanese border. More than 150 have been killed there, mostly Hezbollah fighters, but also 19 civilians.

The death toll in Israel is less clear, as the army does not immediately release data on casualties. The official toll stands at four soldiers and four civilians.

Israeli bombardment has destroyed entire areas in southern Lebanon.

Christian villages have mostly been spared but on Saturday an Israeli shell landed near the 600-year-old monastery of Saint Mema close to the border village of Deir Mimas.

No Christmas services took place at the monastery this year. “It’s too dangerous,” George Nakad, the Mayor of Deir Mimas, told