By Alice Chancellor, AFP
Photo: HAZEM BADER / AFP
Scouts marched under a clear blue sky in Bethlehem, as the Palestinian city emerged from the shadow of the war in Gaza to celebrate its first festive Christmas in more than two years.
Throughout the Gaza war that began with Hamas's attack on Israel in October 2023, a sombre tone marked Chistmases in Bethlehem, the biblical birthplace of Jesus Christ.
But on Wednesday (local time), celebrations were in full swing again in the occupied West Bank city, as a fragile truce held in the Gaza Strip where hundreds of thousands of people face the winter living in makeshift tents.
In the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV was due to deliver his first Christmas
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