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A shop owner shows Christmas decorations at a shop in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on 13 December 2023, a few days before Christmas amid continuing battles between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.
Outside Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity in the Palestinian West Bank, the throngs of tourists and pilgrims who normally rub shoulders with costumed Santas and marching bands are missing this year.
There are no festive lights strung overhead and no sign of the huge tree normally erected to celebrate the event that Christians believe took place on this spot 2 000 years ago: the birth of Jesus Christ.
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