Gaza:

Christians residing in the border villages of South Lebanon observed a muted Christmas this year. Amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza and its aftermath in Lebanon, there have been daily border clashes between Israeli forces and the Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah. Since the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7, the Lebanese side has suffered the loss of at least 17 civilians in addition to 159 militants from Hezbollah and their allied groups.

Israeli attacks have targeted Hezbollah targets, primarily in Shia areas, but they have also caused collateral damage to several Christian communities, driving many families to the north. In Alma Al-Shaab, the village most severely hit, data from the Pontifical Foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) indicates that missiles have damaged 15 homes.

Although Christian families in Beirut have offered to host displaced families, some of the latter have now returned to their severely damaged homes due to a lack of long-term housing options in other regions of the nation. Religious authorities in the area warned ACN that a new conflict would pose a serious threat to the area's long-standing Christian heritage. By giving food packages, medical aid, and online education access to students attending Catholic schools in southern Lebanon, ACN has contributed to lessening the suffering.

Hezbollah and Israeli soldiers are becoming more and more hostile, and on Christmas Day, Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Al-Rahi urged Lebanon to maintain its neutrality. "We oppose the expansion of the conflict to the villages in the south," the Patriarch declared during his Christmas sermon. "Lebanon is a land of dialogue and peace, not of war."

While lamenting the deaths in Gaza, Cardinal Al-Rahi pointed out that the war's extension to Lebanon runs counter to both the 2012 "Baabda Declaration," which emphasized Lebanon's neutrality concerning events in the Middle East, and UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which was passed to put an end to the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in 2006. “Lebanon’s neutrality has been at the core of Lebanon’s identity since 1860, and it is politically neutral in that it neither fights nor is fought,” he said.

Meanwhile, Palestinian authorities reported dozens more casualties on Wednesday as Israeli forces pounded central Gaza by land, sea, and air. The UN health agency said that hundreds of Palestinians were attempting to escape the violence. Israel's military chief, Herzi Halevi, stated on Tuesday that the conflict would endure for several months, expressing Israeli determination to destroy Hamas in defiance of international appeals for a truce amid a humanitarian crisis. He asserted that "dismantling a terrorist organization requires no shortcuts."

Israel also hinted that it would intensify its defense against cross-border assaults from Lebanon, the country's northern neighbor and home to Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas. In another significant development, pro-Palestinian demonstrators on Wednesday morning stopped traffic outside two of the major airports in the United States: John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and Los Angeles International Airport.

At LAX, where protesters turned violent, 36 people were brought into custody, according to the Los Angeles Police Department. Police stated in a statement that "protesters attacked uninvolved passersby in their vehicles, threw a police officer to the ground, and used construction debris, road signs, tree branches, and blocks of concrete to obstruct" a route leading into the airport. The majority of those imprisoned were charged with rioting, and at least one was detained for assaulting a police officer.