Christmas celebrations across Palestine and inside Israel were marked by violence, repression and the enduring trauma of Israel's war on Gaza, as Palestinian Christian communities attempted to observe the holiday under siege, surveillance and occupation.
In the northern city of Haifa, scenes of celebration in the Palestinian Christian neighbourhood of Wadi al-Nisnas turned chaotic after Israeli police stormed the area, arresting and beating residents, according to footage and eyewitness accounts shared online.
Families preparing for Christmas were met instead with force and arrests, in an incident that reflects the routine targeting of Palestinian communities, even during religious holidays.
The crackdown in Haifa came as Christians across Palestine marked Christmas amid the devastation left by Israel's onslaught on Gaza and the tightening grip of military control in the occupied West Bank.
Bethlehem celebrates under occupation
In Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus and a symbol of Palestinian Christian identity, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem Pierbattista Pizzaballa arrived in Manger Square bearing greetings from Gaza's tiny and besieged Christian community, where he had held a pre-Christmas mass days earlier amid the ruins.
Speaking to thousands of Palestinians, both Christian and Muslim, Pizzaballa said the message of Christmas this year was inseparable from suffering and resilience.
"We decide to be the light," he said. "And the light of Bethlehem is the light of the world."
But the words rang against a grim reality. Israel's war and restrictions have crippled Bethlehem's economy, with around 80 percent of residents dependent on tourism which has almost vanished, according to local officials.
As pilgrimages dried up and movement was strangled, unemployment soared from 14 percent to 65 percent, turning daily survival into a struggle.
Most of those attending the celebrations were local residents. Foreign visitors were rare, a reminder of how Israel’s policies have isolated Palestinian cities and severed them from the outside world.
'Hope in very dark situations'
For Bethlehem resident Georgette Jackaman, a tour guide from a family rooted in the city for generations, this Christmas carried both pain and meaning. It was the first true Christmas celebration for her two young children.
"Today is a day of joy, a day of hope," she told AP. "But it comes after a very dark time."
During the war, Jackaman and her husband launched an online platform to sell Palestinian handicrafts, trying to help families whose livelihoods were wiped out by closures and bombardment.
French visitor Mona Riewer said she travelled to Bethlehem despite warnings, wanting to witness Palestinian life firsthand.
"Christmas is hope in very dark situations," she said. "And Palestinians have been living in darkness for a long time."
Checkpoints, raids and settler violence
Despite a Gaza ceasefire announced in October, Israeli violence across the West Bank has not ceased. Israeli forces continue near-daily raids, while settler attacks on Palestinians have reached record levels, according to the United Nations.
Israel's already draconian restrictions on movement have also intensified. Irene Kirmiz, who travelled from Ramallah to Bethlehem to attend the traditional Christmas scout parade, said the journey took hours due to Israeli checkpoints. What was once a 40-minute drive became an exhausting ordeal beginning before dawn.
"This should be a moment of peace," she said. "Instead, every movement is controlled, delayed, humiliated."
As poverty deepens, about 4,000 people have left Bethlehem in search of work, local officials say, accelerating the steady erosion of the Christian presence in Palestine.
Christians now make up less than two percent of the West Bank’s population, a decline many blame on occupation, economic strangulation and forced migration.