Countries welcome 2024 with tears, pain and conflicts

While countries around the world welcomed the New Year with celebrations, there were other countries that welcomed the New Year with tears, pain, and heartbreak.

While countries around the world welcomed the New Year with celebrations, there were other countries that welcomed the New Year with tears, pain, and heartbreak.

The Pope highlights the human cost of war

At the Vatican, Pope Francis recalled 2023 as a year marked by wartime suffering.

  During his traditional Sunday Mass from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, he offered prayers for “the suffering Ukrainian people, the Palestinian and Israeli peoples, the Sudanese people and many others.”

“At the end of the year, we will have the courage to ask ourselves how many human lives have been shattered by armed conflicts, how many deaths, how much destruction, how much suffering, how much poverty,” the Pope said.

The Gaza and Ukraine wars

In Russia, year-end celebrations were overshadowed by the country's military operations in Ukraine, with fireworks and the usual concert in Moscow's Red Square cancelled, as happened last year.

Even without the celebrations, people gathered in the square, some cheering and pointing their phones at a clock counting down the final seconds of the year.

After the bombing of the Russian border city of Belgorod on December 30, 2023, killed 24 people, some local authorities across the country also canceled fireworks displays, including in Vladivostok.

Millions were expected to listen to President Vladimir Putin's pre-recorded New Year's speech, in which he said there was no force capable of dividing Russians and stopping the country's development.

Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip

Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip killed at least 35 people on Sunday, hospital officials said, as fighting intensified in the small enclave a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is resisting international calls for a ceasefire, said the war would continue “for many.” "More months."

Tel Aviv

Skyscrapers in Tel Aviv were lit up in yellow to call for the release of Palestinian hostages held by Palestinian militants in Gaza for more than 80 days.

“While you are counting down to the new year, our time and our lives have stopped,” said Moran Bitzer Tayar, the aunt of Yagiv Buchstab, a 34-year-old hostage.

Gaza strip

In the Gaza Strip, displaced Palestinians gathered around a fire in a makeshift refugee camp.

Kamal Al-Zinati, who lost many of his family members in the conflict, said: “Because of the intensity of the pain we are experiencing, we do not feel that there is a new year.” "All days are the same."

Iraq

In Iraq, the Christmas tree was decorated with Palestinian flags and symbolic bodies in funeral shrouds, and placed next to the Freedom Monument in central Baghdad. Many Christians in Iraq canceled their celebrations this year in solidarity with Gaza, and chose to limit their celebrations to prayers and rituals.

Ahmed Ali, a Baghdad resident, said, “We hope that the new year 2024 will be a year of goodness, prosperity and happiness.”

In Muslim-majority Pakistan, the government banned all New Year's Eve celebrations in solidarity with the Palestinians.

Global tensions stimulate security vigilance

New York Mayor Eric Adams said there were "no specific threats" to the annual party in his city. However, police said they had expanded the security perimeter around the party, creating a "buffer zone" to allow them to ward off potential demonstrations. On New Year's Eve 2022, a machete-wielding man attacked three police officers a few blocks from Times Square.

Las Vegas Strip closed

The Las Vegas Strip was closed to vehicle traffic and there was a heavy law enforcement presence with armed officers lining the Strip while thousands of revelers gathered and street musicians played. The city of Las Vegas said more than 400,000 people are expected to attend the celebration.

German authorities

German authorities said they arrested three more people in connection with a threat of a New Year's Eve attack by Islamic extremists on the world-famous Cologne Cathedral.

In Berlin, about 4,500 police officers worked to maintain order and avoid riots like the one we witnessed a year ago. They also banned a pro-Palestinian demonstration in the Neukölln neighborhood of the German capital, which has witnessed several pro-Palestinian riots.