キリスト生誕の地ベツレヘム、イブも閑散　ガザに連帯

【ベツレヘム（パレスチナ自治区）ＡＦＰ＝時事】イエス・キリスト生誕の地とされる、パレスチナ自治区ヨルダン川西岸のベツレヘムでは、クリスマスイブの２４日、例年の行事が自粛され街は閑散とし、教会に礼拝に訪れる人もまばらだった。（写真は、イエス・キリスト誕生の地とされる、ヨルダン川西岸ベツレヘムの聖誕教会の外でラテン・エルサレム総大司教を出迎える列の中で、ガザ地区でのイスラエル軍とハマスの戦争終結を求めるパレスチナのスカウト運動の子どもたち）
　今年は教会指導者が、ガザ地区住民に連帯を示し、「不必要に華美な祝い」を自粛することを決定。
　カトリック教会のピエルバティスタ・ピザバララテン・エルサレム総大司教はこの日、ベツレヘムの聖誕教会を訪れ、「私たちの心はガザと、ガザにいるすべての人々と共にある。特に、苦難に直面しているガザのキリスト教徒に思いを寄せている」と表明。
　「私たちはここで祈りをささげる。ただ停戦を求めるだけではない。それだけでは不十分だ。暴力は暴力しか生み出さない」と述べた。
　イスラエル軍が攻撃を強化しているガザ南部ハンユニスの病院で人工透析中に取材に応じた男性は、以前は家族でベツレヘムを訪れる許可を得てクリスマスを祝っていたが、今年は祝わないと話した。
　「喜びはない。クリスマスツリーも飾り付けも家族とのディナーも、祝い事もなしだ」とし、「この戦争が早く終わるよう祈っている」と語った。
　イスラエル当局が発表した数字に基づくＡＦＰの集計によると、イスラム組織ハマスは１０月７日の越境攻撃で民間人を中心に約１１４０人を殺害、２５０人を拉致した。
　一方、ガザの保健当局は、大規模な空爆を含むイスラエルの軍事作戦による死者は２万４２４人に上り、その大半は女性と子どもだとしている。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/12/25-17:00）

Gaza's deadliest ever war cast a pall of gloom over Bethlehem on Christmas Eve Sunday, as the death toll spiralled and Israel shifted its efforts against Hamas to the besieged territory's south.
The health ministry in the Hamas-run Strip said an Israeli strike late Sunday killed at least 70 people in Al-Maghazi refugee camp, in central Gaza, and destroyed several houses.
AFP was unable to independently verify the toll, which suggests one of the deadliest strikes since the war began on October 7. Contacted by AFP, the Israeli army said it was checking the report.
Health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said the toll is likely to rise as many families were thought to be in the area at the time of the strike.
Christmas celebrations were effectively cancelled in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, revered as the birthplace of Jesus Christ, where the Latin patriarch offered a message of solidarity with the Palestinians of Gaza.
And Pope Francis kicked off mass at Saint Peter's Basilica with a call for peace.
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, the Catholic leader said.
US President Joe Biden earlier stressed the critical need to protect civilians, in a call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who vowed Israel would continue the war until all of its goals have been achieved, according to official statements.
As heavy fighting raged on, the Israeli army said 154 troops had died in Gaza since it launched its ground invasion on October 27.
Ten soldiers were killed in battles on Saturday, one of the deadliest days for the Israeli side.
The war is exacting a very heavy price... but we have no choice but to keep fighting, said Netanyahu.
- Christmas 'cancelled' -
The war broke out when Hamas fighters attacked southern Israel on October 7 and killed about 1,140 people, mostly civilians, and seized 250 hostages, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.
Israel's withering military campaign, including massive aerial bombardment, has killed 20,424 people, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's health ministry.
The army said soldiers had raided a northern Gaza compound near schools, a mosque and a clinic and found explosives, weapons and intelligence documents.
Hamas rejected the Israeli claims, saying they are meant to justify their massacring of innocent civilians and their destructive aggression.
The Gaza health ministry reported late Sunday a strike that killed 10 members of one family in the Jabalia camp in northern Gaza.
As the war rages on, Christians around the world mark Christmas Eve.
Festivities are usually held in Bethlehem, where faithful believe Jesus was born, 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 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 -- where two Christian women were killed by an Israeli sniper earlier this month according to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem -- struck a sombre tone.
All Christmas celebrations have been cancelled, she told AFP. How do we celebrate when we are... hearing the sound of tanks and bombardment instead of the ringing of bells?
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.
- 'More hatred, less peace' -
Vast areas of Gaza lie in ruins and its 2.4 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.
The Jordanian army said its air force had air dropped aid to about 800 people sheltering at the Church of Saint Porphyrius in northern Gaza.
Eighty percent of Gazans have been displaced, according to the UN, many fleeing south and now shielding against the winter cold in makeshift tents.
Two Palestinian men who had been held by the Israeli army in Gaza and a medic alleged that detainees have been subjected to torture in Israeli custody, including beatings and food deprivation --- charges the army has denied.
Israeli military spokesman Jonathan Conricus indicated that forces were close to gaining control in northern Gaza and that now we focus our efforts against Hamas in southern Gaza.
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.
The Gaza war has heightened tensions across the Middle East. Yemen's Huthi rebels have fired at cargo vessels in the Red Sea, leading the United States to build a naval taskforce to deter the missile and drone strikes.
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