For a third year in a row, Christmas is arriving in Gaza not with bells and lights but with silence and grief, as a battered community struggles to endure while clinging to hopes that the future will be brighter.
Once a season of song and shared celebration in the Palestinian territory, the holiday has become another reminder of what the war has taken – lives, homes and any sense of safety.
Yet many hope for a future in which the holiday can return to what it once was.
Inside the few remaining churches in Gaza, where Israeli forces have killed more than 70,000 Palestinians since the Hamas attacks in October 2023, preparations are under way. Despite the ceasefire this year, traditional rituals are stripped down to their barest form: prayer, mass and quiet reflection, with no decorations and no outdoor ceremonies.
For George Anton, director of operations for the Latin Patriarc
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