For the first time after many years, Bethlehem, well known as Christmas city, on Monday was deserted with the usual extravagant musical festivities and decorations due to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war that have left thousands dead since the war began on October 7, 2023.

Some International media reported that some churches hosted a subdued mass on Christmas day at the mostly Palestinian population town in the West Bank who are mourning those killed as war in Gaza rages on.

Reuters captured a Palestinian artist, who showed an installation of a Baby Jesus figurine inside an incubator in front of Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity, “as the suffering of Gazans amid the Israel-Hamas war cast a pall over Christmas”.

It was also gathered that there was no musical festivity, no tree-lighting ceremony, no extravagant decoration that normally bedeck the West Bank city of Bethlehem at Christmas. And, as the war in Gaza raging, the city appeared in mourning.

“In previous years, Bethlehem would be bustling with vibrant decorations and joyful carolers. This year, amid the Israel-Hamas war, the town is eerily quiet”, CBS News reported.

“Bethlehem is normally at its busiest at Christmas but this year war has scared away tourists and pilgrims from the Palestinian town in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, leaving hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops deserted”, says Reuters.

Business Insider media also reported that: “Bethlehem’s economy depends on Christmas tourists. But officials in Jesus’ traditional birthplace are forgoing celebrations due to the Israel-Hamas war”.

Ghost town as many hotels recorded little or no patronage during the Christmas season in Bethlehem.

According to CNN, “This Christmas, a sense of misery has fallen upon the city revered by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus Christ”.

International news agency, Reuters, had reported that Christian clergy canceled celebrations in Bethlehem, the Israeli-occupied Palestinian West Bank city where Christian tradition says Jesus was born in a stable 2,000 years ago.

Reuters report reads verbatim below: Palestinian Christians held a candle-lit Christmas vigil in Bethlehem with hymns and prayers for peace in Gaza.

There was no large tree, the usual centerpiece of Bethlehem’s Christmas observances. Nativity figurines in churches were placed among rubble and barbed wire in solidarity with the people of Gaza.

In Gaza, Hamas and smaller militant ally Islamic Jihad, both sworn to Israel’s destruction, are believed to be holding more than 100 hostages from among 240 they captured during their October 7 rampage through Israeli towns, when they killed 1,200 people.

Since then, Israel has laid much of the narrow strip to waste. Nearly 20,700 Gazans have been killed, including 250 in the last 24 hours (as December 25), according to authorities in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

The vast majority of Gaza’s 2.3 million population have been driven from their homes, and the United Nations says humanitarian conditions are catastrophic.

The Israeli military said on Monday, two of its soldiers had died in the last day, bringing to 158 the number killed since ground operations began on October 20.

Separately, three security sources said an Israeli airstrike outside the Syrian capital Damascus on Monday killed a senior adviser in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

The sources told Reuters, the adviser, known as Sayyed Razi Mousavi, was responsible for coordinating the military alliance between Syria and Iran, which supports Hamas in Gaza.

The Revolutionary Guards, in a statement read on Iranian state television, said Israel “will pay for this crime.”

On Saturday, Israel’s military chief of staff said his forces had largely achieved operational control in the north of Gaza and would expand operations further in the south.

But residents say fighting has only intensified in northern districts.

Diplomatic efforts, mediated by Egypt and Qatar, on a new truce to free the remaining hostages held in Gaza have yielded little public progress.

Hamas and the allied Islamic Jihad have rejected an Egyptian proposal, made in Cairo talks, that they relinquish power in the Gaza Strip in return for a permanent ceasefire, two Egyptian security sources told Reuters on Monday.

The militant groups have said they would not discuss any release of hostages unless Israel ends its war in Gaza, while the Israelis say they are willing to discuss only a pause in fighting.