Deserted streets and shuttered stores as Israel-Hamas war looms over Bethlehem at Christmas

The mood was somber, streets were deserted and stores were shuttered on Christmas Eve in Bethlehem, the Israeli-occupied West Bank city where Christian tradition says Jesus was born in a stable 2,000 years ago.

Set amid rubble and barbed wire, a striking Nativity scene was placed in the city’s central Manger Square, not far from a giant tree that in Christmas season is typically surrounded by revelers and pilgrims visiting the holy site.