Pope Francis has used his Christmas Day address to call for aid to be sent to Gaza, where he said the humanitarian situation is “extremely grave”.
The pontiff delivered his traditional Urbi et Orbi – to the city and world – message to a congregation at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, in which he called for peace in the Middle East.
Francis, who is celebrating his 12th Christmas as Pope, has recently grown more critical of Israel's military campaign in Gaza, describing it last week as “cruelty”, which prompted objections from Israeli diplomats.
In his address, he called for “sounds of arms be silenced in the Middle East” and talked of “the dear community of Gaza where the humanitarian situation is extremely grave”. He was referring to Catholics at the Holy Family Church in Gaza city.
“May there be a ceasefire, may the hostages be released and aid be given to people worn out by hunger and by war,” the 88-year-old Pope told the crowd.
He said went on to “express my closeness to the Christian community in Lebanon, especially in the south, and to that in Syria at this most delicate time” and expressed as desire for “the doors of dialogue and peace be flung open throughout the region, devastated by conflict”.
Pope Francis's plea comes as Israeli army intensified attacks on the health system in the northern Gaza Strip on Tuesday, where troops evicted patients from the Indonesian Hospital, the health ministry in the Palestinian enclave said.
Patients from the Indonesian Hospital, one of the few centres that are at least partially functioning, moved south towards Gaza city, some of them on foot, after troops forced entry on Tuesday morning, official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, quoting witnesses.
The World Health Organisation said it delivered 5,000 litres of fuel and 100 units of blood to the hospital at the weekend. Eight patients were transferred to Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza city.
Israel continued attacks elsewhere in Gaza on Tuesday, killing at least nine people, including a member of the civil emergency service, in four separate strikes, medics said.
Meanwhile the Commissioner General of the UN's agency for Palestinian refugees Philippe Lazzarini on Monday said the “clock is ticking” for the children of Gaza as the war continues amid stalled ceasefire negotiations.
The war in Gaza was triggered by Hamas' October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel, in which nearly 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage to Gaza.
The Pope’s reference to Christians in Syria comes as hundreds of people took to the streets in Christian areas of Damascus to protest the burning of a Christmas tree in a Syrian town, just over two weeks after Islamist-led rebels ousted Bashar Al Assad.
Protesters gathered spontaneously from neighbourhoods on Christmas Eve to express their fears. Some carried wooden crosses and others waved the green, white and black Free Syria flag adopted by the country’s new administration.
Since the early days of the Israel- Gaza conflict in October 2023, Pope Francis has made daily phone calls to the Holy Family Church.
Priests and nuns have gathered over recent months to listen to the Pope speak.
“Every day the Pope calls us, he prays for all of us and comforts us,” Sister Nabila Saleh, of the Rosary Sisters School in Gaza, told The National. “Pope Francis is working to make peace possible. We know we are in his prayers.”
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
What is blockchain?
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-finals, first leg
Liverpool v Roma
When: April 24, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Anfield, Liverpool
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 2, Stadio Olimpico, Rome
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
FIXTURES
All games 6pm UAE on Sunday:
Arsenal v Watford
Burnley v Brighton
Chelsea v Wolves
Crystal Palace v Tottenham
Everton v Bournemouth
Leicester v Man United
Man City v Norwich
Newcastle v Liverpool
Southampton v Sheffield United
West Ham v Aston Villa
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
Essentials
The flights
Emirates flies direct from Dubai to Seattle from Dh6,755 return in economy and Dh24,775 in business class.
The cruise
UnCruise Adventures offers a variety of small-ship cruises in Alaska and around the world. A 14-day Alaska’s Inside Passage and San Juans Cruise from Seattle to Juneau or reverse costs from $4,695 (Dh17,246), including accommodation, food and most activities. Trips in 2019 start in April and run until September.
Not Dark Yet
Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer
Four stars
Company%20profile%20
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What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
The%20specs
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre flat-six
Torque: 450Nm at 6,100rpm
Transmission: 7-speed PDK auto or 6-speed manual
Fuel economy, combined: 13.8L/100km
On sale: Available to order now
MATCH INFO
Northern Warriors 92-1 (10 ovs)
Russell 37 no, Billings 35 no
Team Abu Dhabi 93-4 (8.3 ovs)
Wright 48, Moeen 30, Green 2-22
Team Abu Dhabi win by six wickets
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, Leon.
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
UAE cricketers abroad
Sid Jhurani is not the first cricketer from the UAE to go to the UK to try his luck.
Rameez Shahzad Played alongside Ben Stokes and Liam Plunkett in Durham while he was studying there. He also played club cricket as an overseas professional, but his time in the UK stunted his UAE career. The batsman went a decade without playing for the national team.
Yodhin Punja The seam bowler was named in the UAE’s extended World Cup squad in 2015 despite being just 15 at the time. He made his senior UAE debut aged 16, and subsequently took up a scholarship at Claremont High School in the south of England.
