{"id":69924,"date":"2025-12-24T22:34:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T22:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/69924\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T22:34:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T22:34:10","slug":"in-bethlehem-christmas-celebrations-make-a-comeback-after-pause-in-gaza-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/69924\/","title":{"rendered":"In Bethlehem, Christmas celebrations make a comeback after pause in Gaza war"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canawati, the mayor, said 4,000 Palestinians have left Bethlehem since the war in Gaza began, citing a fall in tourism as well as the hardships endured under a tightening Israeli occupation. A lot more families are “really struggling” financially, Qumseih said, as the city is reliant on income from tourism and making wood-carved souvenirs.<\/p>\n

Atrash, Qumseih’s husband, had worked in tourism until just a few years ago, when the double-barreled tragedies of Covid and the war kept millions of visitors away.<\/p>\n

Tensions remain high across the West Bank, where attacks by Israeli settlers <\/a>against Palestinians have reached their highest level since the United Nations humanitarian office started collecting data in 2006.<\/p>\n

While the city is comparatively quiet, it feels like “a big jail,” Atrash said, citing Israeli checkpoints and soldiers restricting travel.<\/p>\n

Israel has long argued its security presence in the West Bank is necessary to protect Israeli settlements there.<\/p>\n

Israel’s government is dominated by far-right proponents of the settler movement; over the weekend, the Israeli Cabinet approved a plan for 19 new settlements<\/a> in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe sun rises over the Church of the Nativity on Wednesda.Yosri Aljamal \/ Reuters<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, there are questions over how long the ceasefire in Gaza<\/a> will last, with a number of details critical to a second phase still uncertain as both sides accuse the other <\/a>of failing to fully deliver on their commitments.<\/p>\n

Sticking points include plans for the deployment of an international stabilization force in Gaza, a technocratic governing body, the disarmament of Hamas and further Israeli troop withdrawals from the territory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canawati, the mayor, said 4,000 Palestinians have left Bethlehem since the war in Gaza began, citing a fall…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154],"class_list":{"0":"post-69924","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\/69924","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=69924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}