The typically bustling biblical birthplace of Jesus resembled a ghost town after Christmas Eve celebrations in Bethlehem were called off due to the Israel-Hamas war.
The festive lights and Christmas tree that normally decorate Manger Square were missing, as were the throngs of foreign tourists and jubilant youth marching bands that gather in the West Bank town each year to mark the holiday.
Dozens of Palestinian security forces patrolled the empty square.
The cancellation of Christmas festivities was a severe blow to the town's economy. Tourism accounts for an estimated 70 per cent of Bethlehem's income - almost all of that during the Christmas season.
With many major airlines canceling flights to Israel, few foreigners are visiting. Local officials say over 70 hotels in Bethlehem were forced to close, leaving thousands of people unemployed.
Gift shops were slow to open on Christmas Eve, although a few did once the rain had stopped pouring down. There were few visitors, however.
More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 50,000 wounded during Israel's 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.
The Gaza war has been accompanied by a surge in West Bank violence, with some 300 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire.
The fighting has affected life across the Israeli-occupied territory.
Since October 7, access to Bethlehem and other Palestinian towns in the West Bank has been difficult, with long lines of motorists waiting to pass military checkpoints. The restrictions have also prevented tens of thousands of Palestinians from exiting the territory to work in Israel.
The fighting in Gaza was on the minds of the small Christian community in Syria, which is coping with a civil war now in its 13th year.
Christians said they were trying to find joy, despite the ongoing strife in their homeland and in Gaza."Where is the love? What have we done with love?" said the Rev. Elias Zahlawi, a priest in Yabroud, a city about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Damascus.
"We've thrown God outside the realm of humanity and unfortunately, the church has remained silent in the face of this painful reality."
Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, arriving from Jerusalem for the traditional procession to the Church of the Nativity, told the sparse crowd that Christmas was a "reason to hope" despite the war and violence.
