Its economy is heavily dependent on tourism but few foreign visitors are coming to the city in the occupied West Bank amid the war sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. That is compounding economic misery that began with the Covid pandemic ...

Hundreds gathered at the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem in the West Bank as the leader of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land marked the second Christmas Midnight Mass under the shadow of the war in Gaza.

Bethlehem is an important center in the history of Christianity, but Christians make up only a small percentage of the roughly 14 million people in the area.