Mayor Hanna Nasser said celebrations would be confined only to religious observances and activities for children instead of the usual festivities, due to losses from the fighting. People are mourning the Palestinians killed in the Intifada, the many houses destroyed and also because the city is tightly closed. The Palestinian Authority has banned Christmas decorations and private individuals agree that the mood is too somber to make decorations appropriate. Pictures of Palestinians killed by Israeli troops are posted on some shop walls. There are no Christmas decorations in Manger Square, where tens of thousands of Christians from around the world ushered in the millennium last year.
Local hotels are devoid of tourists.
Their only guests are Palestinian residents of Beit Jala and Beit Sahur whose homes have been hit by Israeli attacks or who have decided to try and flee from the violence. Four Palestinians were killed over the weekend in the occupied territories and another two died of wounds sustained earlier in the week. Three Israeli soldiers were wounded, in an suicide-bomb attack on a cafe near the settlement of Mehola. Palestinians said he was killed by Israeli bullets, but the army said he died from Palestinian gunfire aimed at a nearby Israeli military post during a clash between Israeli and Palestinian forces. Palestinians reported that Nagib Abidou, from the Hebron area, was killed on Friday night in a shooting in the settlement of Beit Hagai.