Festive joy returns to Bethlehem

City emerges from the shadow of war

- 

Hundreds of worshippers gathered for mass at the Church of the Nativity on Wednesday night as the Palestinian city ushered in its first festive Christmas in more than two years, emerging from the shadow of the war in Gaza.

Throughout the conflict that began with Hamas's attack on Israel in October 2023, a sombre tone had marked Christmases in the biblical birthplace of Jesus Christ.

But celebrations returned in full on Wednesday, with crowded parades and music in the occupied West Bank city, as a fragile truce held in Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people are facing winter in makeshift tents.

With pews of the Church of the Nativity filled long before midnight, many stood or sat on the floor for the traditional mass ushering in Christmas Day.

At 11.15pm, organ music rang out as a procession of dozens of clergymen entered, followed by Jerusalem's Latin Patriarch, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who blessed the crowd with signs of the cross. In his homily, he urged peace, hope and rebirth, saying the Nativity story still held relevance amid the turbulence of modern times.