Haifa.<\/a><\/p>\n“Honestly\u00a0after\u00a0two\u00a0years\u00a0of having zero tourism here in Bethlehem and the shutdown\u00a0of tourist establishments, including hotels, workshops, shops, and restaurants, we’ve started to feel that things are beginning to\u00a0return\u00a0to how they were before the\u00a0war,” the mayor stated.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Video]()
West Bank tensions: IDF launches major anti-terror operation in northern West Bank<\/p>\n
“We hope and invite all people to come to the city of peace during Christmas, and\u00a0we invite them to be with us to celebrate peace and hope, which should come out\u00a0from the city of peace to the whole world,” he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Although Gaza is roughly 60 km (37 miles) from Bethlehem, the war has affected Palestinians in the West Bank. Many have family and friends in Gaza, and the war has damaged the tourism that Bethlehem’s economy relies on.<\/p>\n
Israel has erected new military checkpoints across the territory over the past two years, following the infiltration of thousands of Palestinian terrorists into its borders by land, sea, and air, who\u00a0conducted the massacre of over 1,200 Israelis on October 7.<\/p>\n
Some Palestinian communities have in effect been sealed off by gates and roadblocks, making it more difficult for cities like Bethlehem to be accessed by tourists.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"Video]()
Gaza ceasefire: Defense Min. Kat vows to act respond to Hamas ceasefire breach<\/p>\n
“We had corona for two years, so\u00a0there was no tourism, but\u00a0after\u00a0corona we were able to breathe a little bit for a few months, and then the\u00a0war\u00a0happened, and we got really out of breath. It’s been two\u00a0years\u00a0in a below zero level, but today we hope that God provides for us and tourism goes back to how it used to be,” Mahmoud Sliman Fallah, a vendor at the market, told reporters.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A huge Christmas tree with red and gold ornaments was erected in the West Bank city of Bethlehem\u00a0for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54299,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":{"0":"post-54298","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54298","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54298"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}