In a normal year, hundreds of thousands of visitors flood the Palestinian city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, located less than 10 kilometers from Jerusalem.
"Sometimes there are more than half million people who arrive in this period to visit the Nativity Church," he told AFP. The Christmas Eve mass on Thursday, regarded as the most important annual event at the church, will be closed to the public.Not even representatives of the Palestinian Authority will come to Bethlehem on Dec. 24, Asakrieh said.
"Now have the time, and they are obligated, to concentrate on the essential... the theological spirit of Christmas," he said.In the lead-up to Christmas, the small Chapel of Saint Catherine, adjacent to the Church of the Nativity, was opened to the local Palestinian population. "We hope the Lord will destroy corona, just get rid of it so we can return to our previous life," said Zoghbi, who is in his 70s.
Gazan Christians generally receive special permission to cross to Bethlehem for Christmas, but this year those permits have not been issued, said Father Youssef Asaad of the Latin monastery in Gaza.