Bethlehem marks first festive Christmas since war in Gaza

CELEBRATIONS IN FULL SWING AGAIN AS FRAGILE TRUCE HOLDS IN GAZA STRIP

- 

An aerial view shows scouts (left) marching during Christmas eve celebrations on Manger Square.

(AFP)

Scouts marched under a clear blue sky in Bethlehem yesterday, as the Palestinian city emerged from the shadow of the war in Gaza to celebrate its first festive Christmas in more than two years.

Throughout the Gaza war that began with Hamas’s attack on Israel in October 2023, a sombre tone marked Christmases in Bethlehem, the biblical birthplace of Jesus Christ.

But yesterday, celebrations were in full swing again in the occupied West Bank city, as a fragile truce held in the Gaza Strip where hundreds of thousands of people face the winter living in makeshift tents.

In the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV was due to deliver his first Christmas Mass at Saint Peter’s Basilica, after he called for “24 hours of peace in the whole world”.