On Palm Sunday, people walked slowly in a line past the stone front of Gaza's sole Catholic church, gathering to pray for peace while war was happening around them.
Pope Francis offered prayers for the victims of the concert hall attack in Moscow, describing the violence as "inhuman acts" that upset God.
Russia observed a day of mourning on Sunday after the killing of 137 people, the deadliest attack in Europe claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.
President Vladimir Putin has promised to punish those responsible for the "barbaric terrorist attack," stating that four gunmen attempting to escape to Ukraine had been apprehended.
However, Kyiv has strongly denied any involvement in the attack, with President Volodymyr Zelensky accusing Putin of attempting to shift the blame.
"I am praying for the victims of the cowardly terrorist attack that took place the other evening in Moscow," said the 87-year-old pope, following a Palm Sunday mass in Saint Peter's Square.
"May the Lord welcome them in his peace and comfort their families, and change the hearts of those who plan and commit these inhuman actions that upset God, who commanded 'Thou shalt not kill,'" he wrote on X.
According to AFP, Holy Family Church's peaceful courtyard, filled with many children and elderly people, contrasted with the humanitarian crisis outside its gates in Gaza City.
Inside the church, worshippers in their Sunday best sat in the wooden pews adorned with palm fronds for the service marking the beginning of Easter week.
"Our celebration of Palm Sunday is a chance for hope, goodness, and peace for us and for the entire world," said a young man speaking from the pulpit.
"In order to renew our hearts and fill them with love, giving, and peace," he said, dressed in a long red robe.
Somber-looking altar boys in the front row listened quietly, while parishioners with drawn faces after months of war filled the other rows.
The church in northern Gaza is near Al-Shifa hospital and its neighborhood, where intense fighting has occurred between Israeli troops and Hamas fighters.
A recent United Nations-backed assessment stated that Gaza's northern area would face famine by May if urgent action was not taken.
Heavy fighting has made it particularly challenging to deliver emergency food aid to the approximately 300,000 people still in the area, as estimated by the UN.
"This year, we don't have the heart to celebrate," Nabila Saleh, a sister at the Holy Family church, told AFP.
"We decorated, but we don't feel the joy of other years."
The Gaza war was sparked by the unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7, resulting in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
The health ministry in Hamas-run territory stated that the total death toll during almost six months of war now stood at 32,226, with most of the victims being women and children.
