![\"Clergymen](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/afp_694c267f636e-1766598271.jpg\")
Clergymen and alter boys wait ahead of Christmas service in the Manger Square outside the Church of the Nativity (R) in the biblical city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank on Christmas eve on December 24, 2025. (AFP)<\/p>\nChristmas celebrations return to Bethlehem as thousands gather in Manger Square for the first time since 2022.<\/p>\n
Thousands of people have gathered in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve for the first public celebrations since 2022 after the city cancelled or muted festivities for two years out of respect for the thousands killed during Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza.<\/p>\n
Families filled Manger Square in the occupied West Bank city as a giant Christmas tree returned to the plaza, replacing a nativity display used during the war that showed baby Jesus amid rubble and barbed wire, symbolising the devastation in Gaza.<\/p>\n
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The celebrations were led by Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the top Catholic leader in the Holy Land, who arrived in Bethlehem from Jerusalem in the traditional Christmas procession and called for \u201ca Christmas full of light\u201d.<\/p>\n
Clergymen and alter boys wait ahead of Christmas service in the Manger Square outside the Church of the Nativity (R) in the biblical city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank on Christmas eve on December 24, 2025. (AFP)<\/p>\n
Scout bands from towns across the West Bank marched through Bethlehem\u2019s streets, their bagpipes draped with tartan and Palestinian flags.<\/p>\n
Since the start of Israel\u2019s genocidal war on Gaza, its forces have carried out near-daily raids across the West Bank, arresting thousands of Palestinians and sharply restricting movement between cities.<\/p>\n
Palestinians say the intensified military presence, road closures and checkpoint delays have deterred visitors, paralysing the tourism sector on which Bethlehem\u2019s economy depends.<\/p>\n
The vast majority of those celebrating were local residents, with only a small number of foreign visitors.<\/p>\n
Unemployment in Bethlehem surged from 14 percent to 65 percent during the genocidal war on Gaza, Mayor Maher Nicola Canawati said earlier this month. As economic conditions deteriorated, about 4,000 residents left the city in search of work, he added.<\/p>\n
Israeli raids and settler attacks<\/p>\n
The return of Christmas celebrations comes despite continued raids and large-scale military incursions<\/a> across the occupied West Bank, even after a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, which has been repeatedly violated by Israeli forces, took hold in October.<\/p>\n The raids often entail mass arrests of Palestinians, home searches and demolitions, as well as physical assaults that sometimes lead to deaths.<\/p>\n Attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians have reached their highest level since the United Nations humanitarian office began recording data in 2006. The attacks have involved killings<\/a>, beatings and the destruction of property, often under the protection of the Israeli military.<\/p>\n Earlier on Wednesday, more than 570 Israeli settlers entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem under police protection, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.<\/p>\n Palestinians say such incursions violate the longstanding status quo governing Islam\u2019s third-holiest site.<\/p>\n Israel\u2019s security cabinet has also signed off on plans to formalise 19 illegal settlements<\/a> across the West Bank, in a move Palestinian officials say deepens a decades-long project of\u00a0land theft<\/a>\u00a0and demographic engineering.<\/p>\n The United Kingdom, Canada, Germany and other countries condemned the move on Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe call \u200don \u2060Israel to reverse this decision, as well as the expansion of settlements,\u201d said a joint statement released by the UK, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway and Spain.<\/p>\n \u201cWe \u200crecall that such unilateral actions, \u200cas part \u2060of a wider intensification of the settlement policies in the West Bank, \u200cnot only violate international law but also risk fuelling instability.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christmas celebrations return to Bethlehem as thousands gather in Manger Square for the first time since 2022. Thousands…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,5061,20743,139,30228,3766],"class_list":{"0":"post-70037","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","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-middle-east","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-occupied-west-bank","15":"tag-palestine"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70037","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=70037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}