Pope Leo XIV used his first Christmas Day homily on Thursday to remember the people of Gaza "exposed for weeks to rain, wind and cold," alongside refugees and displaced persons worldwide, and said the world's many conflicts can only be silenced through dialogue.
Leo led the Christmas Day Mass from the central altar beneath the balustrade of St. Peter's Basilica, adorned with floral garlands and clusters of red poinsettias.
"Since the Word was made flesh, humanity now speaks crying out with God's own desire to encounter us. The Word has pitched His fragile tent among us. How, then, can we not think of the tents in Gaza, exposed to weeks of rain, and wind, and cold?" Leo said.
Israel killed more than 71,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, in Gaza and destroyed the enclave during its two-year war. A cease-fire was agreed upon in October but Israeli violations have continued unabated.
According to the Gaza government media office, more than 400 Palestinians have since been killed and over a thousand others injured in Israeli attacks.
Winter storms have worsened the already dire conditions for hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians in Gaza.
Cold winds and rain are sweeping through overcrowded camps with temporary shelters. People are living in makeshift tents, with no heating, electricity or privacy.
Humanitarian agencies say there is still too little aid getting into Gaza, where nearly the entire population is homeless.
Leo has lamented the conditions for Palestinians in Gaza several times recently and told journalists last month that the only solution in the decades-long conflict between Israel and the Palestinian people must include a Palestinian state.
In Thursday's service with thousands in St. Peter's Basilica, Leo also drew attention to similar hardships faced by other refugees and displaced persons on every continent as well as homeless people living under "makeshift shelters."
The pontiff also recalled the fragility of "defenseless populations, tried by so many wars," and of "young people forced to take up arms, who on the front lines feel the senselessness of what is asked of them, and the falsehoods that fill the pompous speeches of those who send them to their deaths."
"Jesus wants us to touch human misery, to touch the suffering flesh of others. He hopes that we will stop looking for those personal or communal niches which shelter us from the maelstrom of human misfortune and instead enter into the reality of other people's lives and know the power of tenderness," the pope said.
In his Christmas Urbi et Orbi message, which means to the city and the world in Latin, the pope renewed his call for peace, dialogue and responsibility, according to Vatican News.
He prayed for "justice, peace, and stability for Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, and Syria," urging a renewal of peace grounded in "righteousness."
The pontiff also called for "the clamor of weapons to cease" in Ukraine and urged the international community to find the courage to engage in "sincere, direct and respectful dialogue."
He voiced solidarity with victims of war and violence in Sudan, South Sudan, Mali, Burkina Faso and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and with all those suffering from injustice, instability, persecution and terrorism.
Leo also prayed for the restoration of the "ancient friendship" between Thailand and Cambodia.
