Bethlehem (West Bank, Israel): Bethlehem is gearing up for a subdued Christmas, without the festive lights and customary Christmas tree towering over Manger Square, after officials in Jesus' traditional birthplace decided to forego celebrations due to the Israel-Hamas war.
The cancellation of Christmas festivities, which typically draw thousands of visitors, is a severe blow to the town's tourism-dependent economy. But joyous revelry is untenable at a time of immense suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, said Mayor Hana Haniyeh. The economy is crashing, Haniyeh told The Associated Press on Friday. "But if we compare it with what's happening to our people and Gaza, it's nothing," he said.
More than 18,700 Palestinians have been killed and more than 50,000 wounded during Israel's blistering air and ground offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers, according to health officials there, while some 85 per cent of the territory's 2.3 million residents have been displaced. The war was triggered by Hamas' deadly assault October 7 on southern Israel in which militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took more than 240 hostages.
Since October 7, access to Bethlehem and other Palestinian towns in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has been difficult, with long lines of motorists waiting to pass military checkpoints. The restrictions have also prevented many Palestinians from exiting the territory to work in Israel.
City leaders fret about the impact the closures have on the small Palestinian economy in the West Bank, already struggling with a dramatic fall in tourism since the start of the war. The Palestinian tourism sector has incurred losses of USD 2.5 million a day, amounting to USD 200 million by the end of the year, the Palestinian minister of tourism said on Wednesday.