BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — The typically busy biblical birthplace of Jesus resembled a ghost town Sunday after Christmas Eve celebrations in Bethlehem were canceled 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 cheering youth marching bands that gather in the West Bank city each year to celebrate the holiday. Dozens of Palestinian security forces patrolled the empty square.

“This year, without a Christmas tree and without lights, there is only darkness,” said Brother John Vinh, a Franciscan monk from Vietnam who has lived in Jerusalem for six years.

Vinh said he always comes to Bethlehem for Christmas, but this year it was particularly sobering. He looked at a manger scene in Manger Square with a baby Jesus wrapped in a white shroud, commemorating the thousands of children killed in the fighting in Gaza.

The scene was surrounded by barbed wire, and the gray rubble reflected none of the cheerful lights and splashes of color that usually fill the square during the Christmas season. Cold, rainy weather added to the gloomy mood.

The cancellation of Christmas celebrations was a major blow to the city’s economy. Tourism accounts for an estimated 70% of Bethlehem’s income – almost all of it during the Christmas season.

With many major airlines canceling flights to Israel, few foreigners are visiting. According to local officials, over 70 hotels in Bethlehem were forced to close, leaving thousands of people unemployed.

Gift shops opened slowly on Christmas Eve, but some opened after the rain stopped. However, there were few visitors.

“We cannot justify putting out a tree and celebrating as usual when some people (in Gaza) don’t even have houses to go to,” said Ala’a Salameh, one of the owners of Afteem Restaurant, a family business . Own falafel restaurant, just a few steps away from the square.

Salameh said Christmas Eve is usually the busiest day of the year. “Usually you can’t find a single chair to sit on, we’re full from morning to midnight,” Salameh said. On Sunday morning, only one table was occupied by journalists taking a break from the rain.

Under a banner reading “Bethlehem’s Christmas bells ring for a ceasefire in Gaza,” a few teenagers offered small inflatable Santas, but no one bought.

Instead of their traditional march through the streets of Bethlehem, young Boy Scouts stood silently with flags. A group of local students silently unfurled a huge Palestinian flag.

An organist with the Church of the Nativity choir, Shukry Mubarak, said the group changed much of the traditional Christmas music repertoire from upbeat holiday songs to more solemn hymns in a minor key.

“Our Christmas message every year is one of peace and love, but this year it is a message of sadness, sorrow and anger to the international community at what is happening and going on in the Gaza Strip,” said Bethlehem Mayor Hana Haniyeh he said in an address to the crowd.

Dr. Joseph Mugasa, a pediatrician, was one of the few international visitors. He said his tour group of 15 people from Tanzania was “determined” to come to the region despite the situation.

“I have been here several times and it is a very special Christmas as there are usually a lot of people and a lot of celebrations,” he said. “But you can’t celebrate while people are suffering, so we are sad for them and pray for peace.”

According to health authorities there, more than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 50,000 injured during Israel’s air and ground offensive against the Hamas rulers in the Gaza Strip, while around 85% of the territory’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced.

The war was sparked by Hamas’ deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7, in which militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took more than 240 hostages.

The Gaza war has been accompanied by a rise in violence in the West Bank, with around 300 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire.

The fighting has disrupted life throughout Israeli-occupied territory. Since October 7, access to Bethlehem and other Palestinian cities in the West Bank has been difficult, with long lines of drivers waiting to pass through military checkpoints. The restrictions have also prevented tens of thousands of Palestinians from leaving the territory to work in Israel.

Amir Michael Giacaman opened his shop “Il Bambino,” which sells olive wood carvings and other souvenirs, for the first time since October 7. There were no tourists and few local residents had any money left because those who worked in Israel were stuck at home.

“When people have more money, they buy food,” said his wife, Safa Giacaman. “This year we are telling the Christmas story. “We celebrate Jesus, not the tree, not Santa Claus,” she said as her daughter Mikaella walked through the deserted store.

The fighting in Gaza has preoccupied the small Christian community in Syria, which is now in its 13th year of civil war. Christians said they were trying to find joy despite the ongoing conflict in their homeland and in Gaza.

“Where is the love? What have we done with love?” said the Rev. Elias Zahlawi, a priest in Yabroud, a town about 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Damascus. “We have banished God from the realm of humanity and unfortunately has “The Church has remained silent in the face of this painful reality.”

Some tried to be inspired by the Christmas spirit.

Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who traveled from Jerusalem for the traditional procession to the Church of the Nativity, told the sparse crowd that despite war and violence, Christmas was a “reason for hope.”

The scaled-back Christmas reflects the holiday’s original message and highlights the many ways the community comes together, said Stephanie Saldaña, originally from San Antonio, Texas, who has lived in Jerusalem and Bethlehem for 15 years with her husband, a pastor in the Syrian Catholic Church of St. Joseph.

“We feel Christmas more real than ever because we await the arrival of the Prince of Peace. We are waiting for a miracle to end this war,” Saldaña said.