Key Points
- Pope Francis kicked off mass at Saint Peter's Basilica with a call for peace.
- The Israeli military said 10 of its soldiers had been killed, its worst two-day losses since early November.
- More than 20,400 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the Hamas-Israel war.
Pope Francis lamented the "futile logic of war" in the Palestinian territories on Christmas Eve, following reports of fresh bloodshed and an intensification of fighting across the length of the Gaza Strip.
Hours before midnight tolled for Christmas, Israeli airstrikes on the central Gaza Strip left at least 78 dead, Palestinian health officials reported.
The Israeli military spokesperson's office said it was looking into the report.
In the latest massive airstrike, health officials at Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital said at least 78 Palestinians were killed and several houses damaged in central Gaza's Maghazi area on Sunday night. The death toll was expected to climb.
Meanwhile, the head of the Islamic Jihad group joined talks in Cairo, one small sign that diplomacy remained alive.
But in Bethlehem — the Occupied West Bank city where Jesus is believed to have been born — clergy cancelled traditional Christmas celebrations for the first time in memory.
"Tonight, our hearts are in Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace is once more rejected by the futile logic of war, by the clash of arms that even today prevents him from finding room in the world," Pope Francis said, presiding at Christmas Eve Mass in St Peter's Basilica in Rome.
'No joy, no Christmas tree' in Bethlehem
Palestinian Christians earlier held a Christmas vigil in Bethlehem with candle-lit hymns and prayers for peace in Gaza instead of the usual celebrations.
Festivities are usually held in Bethlehem, but this year the city is almost deserted, with few worshippers around and no Christmas tree erected, after church leaders decided to forego "any unnecessarily festive" celebrations in solidarity with Gazans.
The Latin patriarch of Occupied Jerusalem, Pierbattista Pizzaballa, arrived Sunday at the Church of the Nativity, clad in the traditional black and white keffiyeh.
"Our heart goes to Gaza, to all people in Gaza but a special attention to our Christian community in Gaza who is suffering," he said.
"We are here to pray and to ask not only for a ceasefire, a ceasefire is not enough... violence generates only violence."
Sister Nabila Salah from the Catholic Holy Church in Gaza struck a sombre tone.
Catholic clergy walk in procession at Manger Square in Bethlehem on Sunday. Source: AAP / Wisam Hashlamoun/EPA
At a hospital in Khan Yunis, where much of the fighting has been concentrated recently, Fadi Sayegh, whose family has previously received permits to travel to Bethlehem for celebrations, said he would not be celebrating Christmas this year.
"There is no joy. No Christmas tree, no decorations, no family dinner, no celebrations," he said, while undergoing dialysis. "I pray for this war to be over soon."
Israel paying a 'heavy price', Benjamin Netanyahu says
Since a week-long truce collapsed at the start of the month, fighting has only intensified on the ground, with war spreading from the north of the Gaza Strip to the full length of the enclave.
The Israeli military said 10 of its soldiers had been killed in the past day, following five killed the previous day, its worst two-day losses since early November.
A relative mourns Israeli soldier of Ethiopian origin staff sergeant Birhanu Kassie during his funeral in Mount Herzl military cemetery on Sunday. Source: AAP / Abir Sultan/EPA
"The war is exacting a very heavy cost from us; however we have no choice (but) to continue to fight."
The Israeli military has expressed regret for civilian deaths but blames Hamas for operating in densely populated areas or using civilians as human shields, a charge the group denies.
A Gaza health ministry spokesman said on Sunday that 166 Palestinians had been killed in the past 24 hours, taking the total Palestinian death toll to 20,424.
Tens of thousands have been wounded, with many bodies believed trapped under rubble. Almost have been displaced.
On Friday, Washington withheld its veto from a United Nations Security Council resolution on the war, allowing the measure to pass after language calling for an immediate halt to hostilities was watered down.
Separate diplomatic efforts, mediated by Egypt and Qatar, on a new truce to free remaining hostages held by militants in Gaza, have yielded little public progress.
Israel's army said soldiers had raided a northern Gaza compound near schools, a mosque and a clinic and found "explosive belts adapted for children, dozens of mortar shells, hundreds of grenades and intelligence documents".
Hamas rejected the Israeli claims, saying they are meant "to justify their massacring of innocent civilians and their destructive aggression".
Photographs of Israeli hostages being held in the Gaza Strip are placed on a house that was destroyed by Hamas militants in Kibbutz Be'eri, Israel, on 20 December. Source: AAP / Ohad Zwigenberg/AP
The publication left open the question of how they had died, with chief military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari saying post-mortems were pending.
"We will brief the families and then, depending on what they approve, the public," he said on Sunday.
The three soldiers and two civilians were among 240 people taken by Hamas gunmen during the cross-border rampage of 7 October that sparked the war.
The military announced the repatriation of their bodies earlier this month.
The White House said on Saturday had discussed the Israeli campaign.
Biden emphasised the "critical need to protect the civilian population including those supporting the humanitarian aid operation, and the importance of allowing civilians to move safely away from areas of ongoing fighting," the White House said in a statement.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees said on social media that "it's hard to wish those celebrating 'Merry Christmas', with ongoing loss, grief and destruction."
Vast areas of Gaza lie in ruins and its 2.3 million people have endured dire shortages of water, food, fuel and medicine due to an Israeli siege, alleviated only by the limited arrival of aid trucks.
Eighty per cent of Gazans have been displaced, according to the UN, many fleeing south and now shielding against the winter cold in makeshift tents.
The head of the UN refugee agency, Filippo Grandi, urged an end to the suffering in the third month of the war.
"A humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza is the only way forward," he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. "War defies logic and humanity, and prepares a future of more hatred and less peace."
And World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus similarly renewed calls for a ceasefire, saying: "The decimation of the Gaza health system is a tragedy."
On Friday, the United States allowed the passage of a UN Security Council resolution that effectively called on Israel to allow "immediate, safe and unhindered" deliveries of life-saving aid to Gaza "at scale".
World powers had wrangled for days over the wording and, at Washington's insistence, toned down some provisions -- including removing a call for a ceasefire.
Netanyahu, speaking at a weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, dismissed reports that the United States had convinced Israel not to expand its military campaign.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday that Netanyahu was persuaded by Biden not to attack the militant Hezbollah group in neighbouring Lebanon out of concerns it would launch an attack on Israel.
"Israel is a sovereign state," Netanyahu said. "Our decisions in the war are based on our operational considerations, and I will not elaborate on that."
The United Nations Security Council averted a threatened US veto on Friday, after days of wrangling, by removing from a draft resolution a call for an immediate end to the war.
The US and Israel oppose a ceasefire, contending it would let Hamas regroup and rearm.
The US abstained from the final statement, which urges steps to allow "safe, unhindered, and expanded humanitarian access" to Gaza and "conditions for a sustainable cessation" of fighting.
The war between Hamas and Israel is the latest escalation in a long-standing conflict.
Hamas is a Palestinian political and military group, which has governed the Gaza Strip since the most recent elections in 2006.
Hamas’s stated aim is to establish a Palestinian state and stop the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, illegal under international law.
Hamas in its entirety is listed as a terrorist organisation by the European Union and seven other countries, including Australia. But the UN Assembly rejected classifying Hamas as a terrorist group in a 2018 vote.
In 2021 the International Criminal Court opened an investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes in the Palestinian territories dating back to 2014, including the recent attacks of both Israel and Hamas.
