{"id":70183,"date":"2025-12-25T06:24:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T06:24:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/70183\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T06:24:27","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T06:24:27","slug":"bethlehem-celebrates-first-festive-christmas-since-gaza-war-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/70183\/","title":{"rendered":"Bethlehem celebrates first festive Christmas since Gaza war"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Hundreds of worshippers gathered for mass at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem 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.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Throughout the conflict that began with Hamas\u2019 attack on Israel in October 2023, a sombre tone had marked Christmases in the biblical birthplace of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">But celebrations returned in full swing 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 face winter in makeshift tents.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">With pews of the Church of the Nativity filled long before midnight, many stood or sat on the floor for the traditional mass to usher in Christmas Day.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa hugs a man dressed up as Santa Claus as he is welcomed in Bethlehem on Wednesday. Photo: AFP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/57ebfa60-383e-4152-8a12-7f9d12da2b44_f60200c9.jpg\" title=\"Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa hugs a man dressed up as Santa Claus as he is welcomed in Bethlehem on Wednesday. Photo: AFP\"\/>Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa hugs a man dressed up as Santa Claus as he is welcomed in Bethlehem on Wednesday. Photo: AFP<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">At 11.15pm organ music rang out as a procession of dozens of clergymen entered, followed by Jerusalem\u2019s Latin Patriarch, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who blessed the crowd with signs of the cross.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of worshippers gathered for mass at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem on Wednesday night as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,36821,5527,36706,36672,2395,456,36671,36951,3954,36670,5061,24324,29339,654,3766,36650,35317,5144],"class_list":["post-70183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-cardinal-pierbattista-pizzaballa","tag-christmas","tag-damascus","tag-fadi-zoughbi","tag-france","tag-gaza","tag-georgette-jackaman","tag-greek-orthodox-church","tag-holy-land","tag-irene-kirmiz","tag-israel","tag-jerusalem","tag-manger-square","tag-nazareth","tag-palestine","tag-palestinian-authority","tag-ramallah","tag-west-bank"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70183","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=70183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}