Bethlehem, occupied West Bank – At Christmas, Noha Helmi Tarazi usually decorates her home with a large tree, which she describes as a symbol of light and joy.

The 87-year-old prepares the house for her family, who gather here every year, preparing Christmas sweets and large, festive meals. She usually puts presents for her grandchildren under the Christmas tree, making sure to wrap them and label them with their names.

This year no one will gather in their house. The children don’t feel like celebrating either, she says.

“There is no joy in our hearts anymore,” she says.

Christmas celebrations are on hold in the birthplace of Jesus Christ. The Decision to cancel Christmas was not taken lightly, but the church and community here are united in wanting to show their solidarity with Palestinians facing Israeli bombings and a total siege of the Gaza Strip.

People were killed by Israeli bombing and artillery fire more than 20,000 people in Gaza since the war began on October 7, including at least 8,000 children. More than 300 people have also been killed in the occupied West Bank, either by Israeli soldiers or by settlers who often attack under the protection of Israeli troops.

The war has brought tourism to Bethlehem – a cornerstone of the economy – to a standstill at the time of year when it usually peaks. While visitors from all over the world flock to the markets of Bethlehem at Christmas, this year the streets are empty.

But even if there were tourists, there would be no celebration among Bethlehem residents, many of whom have close family in Gaza.

“How can we celebrate Christmas in the midst of this genocidal war?” asks Tarazi, known to those close to her as Um Shadi. “How can we celebrate when the people of Gaza struggle to get even one meal a day?”

The images and news of the suffering in Gaza under Israel’s relentless bombardment and ground invasion are too much for them. Um Shadi, whose family lives in Gaza City, says she is particularly disturbed by videos of people fleeing toward the sea and being forced to boil seawater to make it drinkable.

She grew up in the Remal district of Gaza City and lived there until she was 20 in the 1960s. She has “fond memories of the sea,” where she used to swim at night. People lived in peace, she says.

Life became more difficult after she graduated from Cairo University with a degree in English literature in 1967. Unable to return to Gaza because it was occupied by Israel that year, she instead spent the next ten years in Libya, where her brothers lived and where she met her husband.

She eventually returned to the occupied West Bank, where she settled and established her Christmas rituals with her family – traditions she will skip this year.

“May God have mercy on you this Christmas”

All signs of Christmas have disappeared from the streets and houses of Bethlehem. People usually flock there Nativity scene, which is decorated with decorations to watch fireworks. None of that will happen this year.

Many people in Bethlehem and the surrounding area have relatives in Gaza. Um Shadi himself has lost a brother and a sister since the war began.

Her brother died on October 17 after he was unable to receive life-saving gallbladder surgery due to airstrikes on Gaza hospitals.

Just a few days later, one of her sisters died in an accident airstrike at the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Porphyrius, where the family had sought refuge. Another sister lost a leg in the same bombing.

Even before the war, it was always difficult for her to see her family, but now she can hardly speak to them because of this Telecommunications failures in the Gaza Strip.

Um Shadi was unable to attend another sister’s funeral in the enclave before the war because she was not granted permission to travel. Instead, her niece had to make a video of the ceremony for her.

In happier years, some Gazan Christians were able to get permission from Israeli authorities to travel from Gaza to Bethlehem for Christmas – something her sisters and friend Rose often did, she says.

“My sisters always visited me and this year at Christmas I say: May God have mercy on them.”

The agony of not being able to communicate with her family in Gaza is unbearable, she adds. It brought her “to the brink of despair”.

Christmas used to be the one happy event that everyone could count on every year, says Um Shadi. Now that is gone too.