The giant Christmas tree that was absent during the Israel-Hamas war<\/a> returned on Wednesday, overlooking a parade of hundreds of smartly dressed scouts playing well-known Christmas<\/a> songs on bagpipes.<\/p>\n The city where Christians believe Jesus was born cancelled Christmas celebrations for the past two years during the war in Gaza, holding muted celebrations few decorations or lights or festive events.<\/p>\n Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the top Catholic leader in the Holy Land, kicked off Christmas celebrations during the traditional procession from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, calling for \u201ca Christmas full of light.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAfter two years of darkness, we need light,\u201d Pizzaballa, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, said as he crossed the separation wall that divides Jerusalem from Bethlehem.<\/p>\n Arriving in Manger Square, Pizzaballa said he came bearing greetings from Gaza\u2019s tiny Christian community, where he held a pre-Christmas Mass on Sunday. But among the devastation, he also saw a desire for life and to rebuild.<\/p>\n \u201cWe, all together, we decide to be the light, and the light of Bethlehem is the light of the world,\u201d he told thousands of people, Christian and Muslim, who gathered in the square.<\/p>\n Despite Wednesday\u2019s holiday cheer, the impact of the war in the Israeli-occupied West Bank is acute, especially in Bethlehem, where around 80% of the Muslim-majority city\u2019s residents depend upon tourism-related businesses, according to the local government.<\/p>\n The vast majority of people celebrating Wednesday were local residents, with only a handful of foreigners mixed among the crowd.<\/p>\n But some residents said they are starting to see some small signs of change as domestic tourism slowly returns and hopefully will herald the return of international visitors the city depends on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By MELANIE LIDMAN, The Associated Press BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) \u2014 Thousands of people flocked to Bethlehem\u2019s Manger…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":{"0":"post-69518","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\/69518","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=69518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Israel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/R7PFCQWFW5B3NBYVBYIGDPSXRM.jpg\")
Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the top Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land, is received by local community while crossing an Israeli military checkpoint from Jerusalem ahead of celebrations at the Church of the Nativity, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. (AP Photo\/Mahmoud Illean)AP<\/p>\n