Lights, decorations, Christmas trees and music are absent this year in Bethlehem, the West Bank city where Jesus Christ is believed to have been born. On Manger Square, not far from the Church of the Nativity, this year’s nativity scene depicts a baby Jesus wrapped in a white shroud, in honor of the thousands of children killed in the bombings in Gaza, while barbed wire and rubble surround him added. yet another sinister layer to what the traditional nativity would be. But this year, authorities decided to keep Christmas celebrations indoors, with the exception of strictly religious celebrations, and Belém, which usually receives large crowds this season, has been likened to a “ghost town” by the Associated Press (AP) reporter.

Belém lives from tourism: 70% of its income depends on visitors, but this year is one to quickly forget. “Christmas is over, we don’t see Christmas anymore, it would be for our children, but we don’t have Christmas anymore,” Victor Tabah, 77 years old, complained at the time Washingtonpost. The family has been running a souvenir shop for more than sixty years and has never experienced such a slow period. “I don’t blame anyone for this situation, not Hamas or anyone else. We have to blame ourselves, we have to be strong and we have to move on,” he said.

The celebrations were canceled, but the religious ceremonies were not, as Franciscan monk Rami Asakrieh clearly explained to the North American newspaper. “It’s impossible to celebrate when so many people – on both sides – have lost so much. We have canceled the festivities as a sign of solidarity with the victims of the war,” said the pastor of the Santa Catarina Church.

For some of the city’s few Christians, however, austerity and empty streets make more sense. “We feel Christmas more real than ever as we await the arrival of the Prince of Peace. We are waiting for a miracle that will end this war,” American Stephanie Saldana told the AP.

“Very high price”

In the previous two days, 14 Israeli soldiers were killed in combat operations in the Gaza Strip, raising the death toll to 153, while on the Hamas side the latest tally points to 20,424 deaths in the enclave.

According to information from the Israeli army, four soldiers were killed when the vehicle they were traveling in was hit by an anti-tank missile. The rest were killed in separate fighting, all in the central and southern Gaza Strip. The exception was in northern Israel, where a soldier was fatally shot by a Hezbollah attack.

“The war is taking a very high toll on us, but we have no choice but to continue fighting,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of a board meeting. On the same occasion, he reiterated that the conflict “will last a long time.” The day before, the Israeli leader thanked US President Joe Biden for the UN Security Council resolution that did not call for a ceasefire, and thousands of people joined their voices in Tel Aviv to shout: “Bibi, we want you not anymore”.

Israeli Defense Forces officials confirm there is no end in sight to the war, but the message is not the same as Netanyahu’s. According to Daniel Hagari, the armed forces are carrying out “a long and difficult operation that will continue for some time.” Meanwhile, ground operations in the south and north of the Gaza Strip have been expanded after Hamas militants were engaged in “hand-to-hand fighting” in Khan Younis in southern Gaza in recent days.

They will be the target of more accusations

The US Department of Defense accused Iran of attacking a cargo ship in the Indian Ocean with a war drone. The attack caused a fire on board, with no reports of injuries among the majority of the Indian crew. The MV Chem Pluto, which was en route from Saudi Arabia to India, flies the Liberian flag, is operated by a Dutch company and is owned by a Japanese company, according to the US Department of Defense.

Maritime security company Ambrey says the ship has ties to Israel. Hours earlier, tensions had increased between Washington and Tehran. The US accused Iran of being “deeply involved” in planning attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on merchant ships in the Red Sea, saying 10 ships had been attacked with drones and missiles.

Macron is concerned about the Gaza parish

The French president expressed “his deep concern” about the “dramatic situation” in the Catholic parish of Gaza, where two worshipers were “killed in an undignified manner” by an Israeli soldier on the 16th. During the telephone conversation with Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa on Christmas Eve, Emmanuel Macron emphasized that in that parish “hundreds of citizens of all religions have been living under bombs and bullets for more than two months” and expressed his condolences for the death of the two parishioners, reads the statement from Eliseu for.

On the 16th, mother and daughter, both Christians, were killed by an Israeli soldier in front of the only Catholic church in Gaza. The next day, Pope Francis condemned the deaths of these two women. On the eve of Christmas Mass in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, Macron asked the patriarch to “send a message of peace and solidarity to all Christians in the Holy Land and assure them that France is by their side.”

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