Church bells echo through the labyrinth-like streets of Bethlehem. With Christmas approaching, the city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank should be teeming with visitors. But this year, it is almost deserted.
Local leaders made the decision last month to scale back festivities in solidarity with the Palestinian population, as heavy fighting raged between Israel and Hamas in the devastated Gaza Strip.
More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel’s air and ground offensive, according to the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health in Gaza and nearly 85% of the strip’s total population has been displaced.
The war was sparked by Hamas’ terror attack on October 7 on southern Israel in which at least 1,200 people were killed and more than 240 others taken hostage.
Many here have ties to Gaza through loved ones and friends, and a sense of misery has fallen upon the city revered by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus Christ.
Decorations that once adorned neighborhoods have been removed. The parades and religious celebrations have been canceled. In the city center, the traditional enormous Christmas tree of Manger Square is conspicuously absent.
Traveling into Bethlehem, about eight kilometers south of Jerusalem, isn’t ordinarily an easy journey. The Israeli-built West Bank barrier restricts movement, as do the various checkpoints leading in and out of the city. It’s only got worse since Hamas’ brazen attack.
Even the Church of the Nativity – which became the first World Heritage site in the Palestinian territories in 2012 – is largely empty. In a normal year, queues of hundreds would snake around the car park outside with pilgrims patiently waiting to enter its grotto, considered since the 2nd Century to be the exact location of Christ’s birth. A 14-pointed silver star set into the marble floor marks the precise spot where Jesus is said to have been born.
“I have never seen it like this,” says Father Spiridon Sammour, a Greek Orthodox priest at the Church of the Nativity.
“Christmas is joy, love and peace. We have no peace. We have no joy,” he says solemnly. “It is out of our hands, and we pray for the leaders who will make the decisions [all] over the world to God to help them, give them his light to make peace here and all over the world.
(CNN)
