Category World News

Bethlehem, occupied West Bank – For the first time in two years, the Christmas tree in Bethlehem lit up the night sky, restoring a glimmer of joy to the birthplace of Jesus after seasons overshadowed by Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.

Palestinians watching the lighting said the celebration carried a dual meaning: Hope in the Nativity and a yearning for freedom from the Israeli siege gripping Bethlehem and cities across the occupied territory.

At the same time, residents say the celebrations remain dimmed by the grief over mass casualties and destruction in Gaza and Bethlehem’s economic paralysis under tightening Israeli harassment.

This year’s celebrations were limited to religious rituals, attended by church leaders and local officials who stood on a stage in Manger Square for a modest tree-lighting ceremony.

Thousands gathered in the square, singing hymns and listening to choirs carolling – the only form of festivity permitted at a time many described as a mix of joy and mourning.

‘A different Christmas’

“The celebrations this year are unlike any before,” Reverend Munther Isaac, pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church, told Al Jazeera.

“Bethlehem is beautifully decorated, and the tree is lit, but there is deep sorrow inside every Palestinian.

“Through these celebrations, Palestinians send a message of resilience – to say we are still here, determined to live, to keep Bethlehem the capital of Christmas, and to continue telling its story. Palestinians love life.”

Bethlehem’s Mayor Maher N Canawati echoed the message, saying the municipality chose to restore the city’s Christmas lights after “a long period of darkness and silence”.

“We wanted to revive hope for the people of Bethlehem and all Palestinians, and to send that hope to Gaza and to the world,” he told Al Jazeera.

Canawati stressed that Bethlehem “is open and safe”, saying it is time for the world to support Palestinians’ steadfastness.

“As Bethlehem lights its Christmas tree, it … tells us that hope is a strength. But, he added, “The suffering and destruction in Gaza remain in our hearts. People remember the glimmer of light even amid devastation.”

The mayor also shared a message sent to Bethlehem by Pope Leo XIV, saying the pontiff assured residents he “carries Bethlehem in his heart and prayers and is working for an end to Palestinian suffering”, urging people in Gaza “not to give in to despair”.

Canawati called on pilgrims worldwide to visit Bethlehem, saying tourism is an act of solidarity with Palestinians “who are weary of war but have not grown weary of hope”.

Economic hardship under siege

Bethlehem’s Christmas spirit comes despite severe economic decline linked to Israeli closures and the collapse of tourism, the primary driver of the local economy.

Shopkeepers and artisans told Al Jazeera that hope, rather than income, has kept the city standing. Adrian Habibeh, a young artisan working in his family’s olivewood shop where hand-carvings are sold to religious devotees and tourists, said tourism has been “nearly frozen for more than two years”.

“This year’s Christmas celebrations are not like before,” he said. “But we hope this will be a year of joy – and that tourism will return. It’s vital for our economy.”

Residents from across the West Bank and Palestinian communities inside Israel travelled to Bethlehem despite checkpoints and road restrictions.

Yara Khalil, who came with her family from Ramallah, said she felt both joy and unease. “Gaza is suffering terribly from the war, and that pain is inside us,” she said.

“But Bethlehem, which had no celebrations for two years, looks beautiful despite everything.”

She added that she expected the trip to be difficult, “but people’s excitement and determination to celebrate pushed us to come”.

The Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce organised bus trips for Palestinians from cities inside Israel to encourage local tourism.

Samir Hazboun, head of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce, told Al Jazeera that the first groups began arriving on Saturday.

“The second wave of local pilgrims and visitors from Palestinians who live in Israel is expected after December 20,” he said. “We anticipate about 3,000 visitors a day until year-end, which will increase hotel occupancy – currently at just 20 percent among foreign tourists.”

A neo-Nazi march has been held in Sweden’s capital for the first time in 15 years, bringing together far-right white supremacist groups. Police gave permission for the rally to go ahead, to commemorate the killing of a 17-year-old with extremist ties, that used to be held annually in the early 2000s. Al Jazeera’s Nils Adler was there.

Sudan faces a “massive” humanitarian aid crisis, with millions of starving people being denied access to vital food supplies as fighting rages in the war-torn country, the World Food Programme (WFP) has warned.

WFP Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau told Al Jazeera on Sunday that his organisation was assisting 5 million people across the nation, including 2 million in hard-to-reach areas, but it was not enough.

“The needs are massive. We’re talking about 20 million people acutely food insecure, some 6 million in starvation,” he said.

“It is a massive crisis and what we’re able to do, which is important, isn’t enough.”

He said the organisation had “tried every way possible” to get aid to populations in need, including air drops, digital cash transfers and stationing convoys outside besieged areas.

But it had not been possible in violence-ridden areas like el-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state, which was under an 18-month siege before it fell to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in October, or the West Kordofan city of Babnusa, which the RSF claimed to have gained control of last week.

The government-aligned Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have denied that Babnusa has fallen.

Focus needed on Kordofan region

Skau said global attention needed to focus on the Kordofan region, where fighting has been intensifying between SAF and the RSF for weeks.

His warning follows similar comments from the UN’s human rights chief Volker Turk, who said on Thursday that the Kordofan region could face a wave of mass atrocities similar to the widespread killings documented in el-Fasher, which fell to the RSF last month.

“The fighting there is intensifying, and they’re also besieged areas,” said Skau.

“World attention needs to be on Sudan now, and diplomatic efforts need to be stepped up in order to prevent the same disaster we saw in el-Fasher.”

Before el-Fasher fell in November, the UN issued urgent warnings about potential atrocities, but those alerts went largely unheeded. After the city’s capture, mass killings ensued, with corpses visible from satellite imagery, prompting UN chief Antonio Guterres to describe it as a “crime scene”.

Famine conditions have already been confirmed in areas in the Darfur and Kordofan regions.

Sudan minister criticises international aid

Speaking at the Doha Forum on Sunday, Sudan’s Justice Minister Abdullah Dirife criticised the aid supplied by UN groups in Sudan, and said that international focus should be on stopping external support to the RSF from the United Arab Emirates.

Dirife was responding to a question from audience member Jeremy Purvis, a member of the United Kingdom’s House of Lords, asking why aid was continuing to be blocked from reaching civilians in Sudan, and starvation “used as an act of war”.

The RSF accused Sudan’s military on Friday of bombing the Adre border crossing with Chad, a crossing that has been vital for humanitarian aid delivery during the war, in what it said was a deliberate attempt to hinder relief efforts.

Dirife said that Sudan had opened crossings and granted more than 12,000 entry visas to humanitarian workers to assist in relief efforts.

“However what was presented from UN agencies on the humanitarian side is something shameful and embarrassing,” he said.

“There is a failure from the UN agencies,” he added. “The Sudanese government has done everything that can be done to facilitate humanitarian aid to the Sudanese people.”

He said the key to stopping the suffering of the Sudanese people was to put an end to the UAE’s support for the RSF. The UAE has long rejected accusations it is arming the RSF.

Rosemary DiCarlo, UN undersecretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, told the Doha Forum that the international organisation’s “whole focus” in the war in Sudan had been on the protection of civilians.

But while some efforts had been successful, most were not.

“It has been extremely difficult to instil in the parties the need to leave civilians alone,” she said.

‘Massacre’ in South Kordofan

On Saturday, an official in South Kordofan’s Kalogi locality told Al Jazeera that at least 116 people had been killed in an RSF attack on a pre-school and other sites on Thursday, including 46 children who attended the pre-school.

The Sudanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs described the attack in a statement as a “full-fledged massacre”, saying RSF forces had targeted the pre-school directly with missiles from a drone, before bombing it again while the locals were trying to rescue the wounded, then pursuing the wounded and the paramedics inside a hospital.

The executive director of the Kalogi locality said the high death toll in the attack was due to the severity of the injuries sustained, while some families avoided taking injured loved ones to the hospital for treatment because of attacks on the facility.

Displaced women raped

Meanwhile, the Sudan Doctors Network said it had documented 19 cases of rape committed by RSF forces against women in the al-Afad camp in al-Dabbah who had fled the fighting in el-Fasher.

The group said two of the survivors, situated in Sudan’s Northern State, were pregnant, and were receiving ”special healthcare under the supervision of local medical teams”.

It said it “strongly condemns the gang rape” being carried out by RSF forces, which was a violation of international law, and warned that “the silence of the international community regarding these heinous practices encourages their repetition.”

Elsewhere, a Sudanese army source told Al Jazeera that air defences had intercepted RSF drones in al-Damazin in Sudan’s southern Blue Nile state, while a government source said electricity had been cut off in the city due to shelling of a power station.