MUTED CHRISTMAS IN BETHLEHEM DUE TO COVID

Christmas was celebrated somberly in the Biblical birthplace of Jesus on Thursday, with not only inns but also Manger Square void of pilgrims due to a coronavirus travel ban on foreign nationals, Ofira Koopmans and Maher Abukhater reported for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).

Boy scouts marching on the square and playing bagpipes welcomed Roman Catholic spiritual leader in the Holy Land Pierbattista Pizzaballa, who arrived in the southern West Bank city at the head of a solemn procession from nearby Jerusalem.

Welcomed also by Franciscan priests dressed in white and black vestments, Pizzaballa bowed his head as he entered into the Church of Nativity, built on the traditional birthplace of Jesus, through its low "Door of Humility."

The Italian-born Latin Patriarch is due to celebrate the midnight Christmas Mass in the Church in the presence of clergymen only.

Manger Square bordering the Church, adorned with a giant Christmas tree, was empty of the thousands of foreign Christian pilgrims and tourists who packed the square during past Christmases.

"Today Christmas looks sad," said Hilda, a 22-year-old Christian Palestinian from nearby Beit Jala. She was one of few locals awaiting Pizzaballa's arrival. "It's different this year than before when the square is usually full of people," she told dpa.

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