(24 Dec 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Manger Square, Bethlehem, West Bank - 24 December 2023
1. Various of Manger Square
2. Various of people unveiling large Palestinian flag
3. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Tarek Salsa, artist who created art installation “The Nativity Under the Rubble":
++TRANSLATION PROVIDED AT EVENT++
"This nativity scene is not for Gaza. Gaza does not need this. It needs a sense from all of the world against this coloniser."
4. SOUNDBITE (Arabic) Munther Isaac, Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem:
++TRANSLATION PROVIDED AT EVENT++
"It is impossible to celebrate (Christmas) this year with our families, friends and dear ones in Gaza being killed."
5. Various of people holding giant flag
STORYLINE:
People in West Bank unveiled a large Palestinian flag in Bethlehem's Manger Square on Christmas Eve, in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
It comes as the normally bustling biblical birthplace of Jesus resembled a ghost town on Sunday, with Christmas Eve celebrations in Bethlehem 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.
Speaking at the event, the Pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem, Munther Isaac, said it was "impossible" to celebrate Christmas whilst fighting was continuing in the Gaza Strip.
Over 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% 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.
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