The patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, addressed the Christmas midnight mass at the Church of St. Catherine in Bethlehem and said “We don’t want a cease-fire, we want the hostilities to end…We have to stop this nonsense.”

In an address late on Christmas Eve, Pope Francis said “our hearts are in Bethlehem,” as he lamented the rejection of peace “by the futile logic of war.”

On Christmas Day, the pope reiterated his calls for an end to hostilities, calling the fighting in the Gaza Strip an “appalling harvest of innocent civilian victims” and saying the children killed in the conflict were “little Jesuses of today.”

The streets of Bethlehem, which are usually packed with foreign tourists and marching bands during the holidays, were largely empty over the weekend as celebrations were canceled due to the war.

Some locals in Bethlehem protested Israel’s military operation through nativity scenes and installments showing bodies wrapped in white cloth and a baby Jesus inside an incubator.

Meanwhile in his Christmas message, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decried Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel that initially prompted a massive Israeli invasion of Gaza, writing in a tweet that “we don't have peace on Earth, not in our part anyway, and we certainly don't see good will to all men.”