It should be the centre of the Christian world's attention and at its busiest – but Bethlehem, the biblical birthplace of Jesus, is almost empty – with Christmas Eve celebrations cancelled due to the Israel-Hamas war.
Instead of being packed with foreign tourists who gather each year to mark the holiday and lit up with its normal show of lights and seasonal attractions, Manger Square is being patrolled by Palestinian security forces.
Many of the gift shops that would expect to be having their busiest period of the year have not even bothered to open, so few are the customers who would normally be spending their money and sustaining the businesses.
The area around the Church of the Nativity would normally be packed, but war has ensured it is almost empty (AP)People should be visiting the Grotto under the Church of the Nativity, traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Jesus, on Christmas Eve, but Brother John Vinh, a Franciscan monk from Vietnam who has lived in Jerusalem for six years, said: "This year, without the Christmas tree and without lights, there’s just darkness."
A regular visitor to Bethlehem at Christmas, he said this year has lacked the joy of other times with a nativity scene in Manger Square reflecting death rather than birth, with a baby Jesus wrapped in a white shroud, symbolising the hundreds of children killed in the fighting in Gaza. Barbed wire surrounds the scene, with grey rubble added to the spectacle reflecting none of the lights and bursts of colour that normally fill the square during the Christmas season.
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At the family-owned falafel restaurant Afteem which sits on the edge of the square, one of the owners, Ala’a Salameh, said that Christmas Eve is easily one of the busiest of the year, but: "We can’t justify putting out a tree and celebrating as normal, when some people (in Gaza) don’t even have houses to go to. Normally, you can’t find a single chair to sit, we’re full from morning until midnight." This year, however, just one table was taken – by journalists sheltering from the rain.
He said his restaurant was operating at around 15 percent of normal capacity, meaning he would not even be able to cover the costs of opening. Mr Salameh thinks that even after the war ends, it will take another year for normal tourism to return to Bethlehem. And the effects of the cancellation of Christmas festivities will be felt across all of the town's economy, with an estimated 70 percent of Bethlehem’s income coming during the Christmas season.
The lack of visitors is, in part, down to the numerous major airlines cancelling flights to Israel, with around 70 hotels in Bethlehem being forced to close, leaving thousands of people unemployed. The fighting in Gaza has also affected life in the West Bank. Since October 7, access to Bethlehem and other Palestinian towns in the Israeli-occupied territory has been difficult, with long lines of motorists waiting to pass military checkpoints.
The restrictions have also prevented tens of thousands of Palestinians from exiting the territory to work in Israel. More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 50,000 wounded during Israel’s air and ground offensive against Gaza’s Hamas rulers, according to health officials there, while some 85 percent of the territory’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced.
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