ROME, DEC 26 (AFP/APP/DNA):Pope Francis called for “arms to be silenced” around the world in his Christmas address on Wednesday, appealing for peace in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan as he denounced the “extremely grave” humanitarian situation in Gaza.
He used his traditional message to the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics to call for talks for a just peace in Ukraine, as the country was pummelled by 170 Russian missiles and drones in a Christmas morning barrage Kyiv branded as “inhumane”.
His voice breathless, the 88-year-old pontiff also appealed for a ceasefire in Gaza and for the freeing of Israeli hostages held there by Hamas.
“I think of the Christian communities in Israel and Palestine, particularly in Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is extremely grave,” he told thousands gathered in front of St Peter’s Basilica for the “Urbi et Orbi” (“to the city and the world”) address.
“May there be a ceasefire, may the hostages be released and aid be given to the people worn out by hunger and by war.”
Francis also extended his call for peace to Sudan, which has been ravaged by 20 months of brutal civil war and where millions are under the threat of famine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky railed at Russia’s attempt to take out his country’s battered power grid, with one energy worker killed in the 13th major attack on the system this year.
“Putin deliberately chose Christmas to attack,” he said. “What could be more inhumane? More than 70 missiles, including ballistic missiles, and more than 100 attack drones.”
Ukraine has been marking Christmas on December 25 for the past two years rather than on January 7, when most Orthodox believers celebrate, as a snub to Moscow.
Russia said five people were killed in Ukrainian strikes on its territory overnight, including one by a downed drone in North Ossetia in the Caucasus.
– ‘Limited joy’ in Bethlehem –
The day was also marred by tragedy when an Azerbaijan Airlines jet carrying 67 people from Baku to the Chechen capital Grozny crashed in western Kazakhstan. Thirty-eight people were killed, Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev said.
Christmas celebrations were also muted in the biblical birthplace of Jesus, the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem.
Since the war in Gaza began, the Palestinian town has done away with its giant Christmas tree and the elaborate decorations that normally draw throngs of tourists.
“This year we limited our joy,” Bethlehem mayor Anton Salman told AFP.
The Latin patriarch, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa, told a small crowd there on Tuesday that he had just returned from Gaza, where he “saw everything destroyed, poverty, disaster”.
“But I also saw life — they don’t give up. So you should not give up either. Never.”
At Manger Square, in the heart of Bethlehem, a group of scouts held a parade that broke the silence.
“We want life, not death,” read the banners they carried, along with messages to “Stop the Gaza genocide now!”
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