Christians from all over the world celebrated Christmas, the festival marking the birth of Jesus Christ, in the Holy Land on Saturday.
The traditional Christmas procession arrived in Bethlehem in the afternoon.
The procession to Bethlehem had set off from Jerusalem at noon (1000 GMT), led by the head of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, Pierbattista Pizzaballa.
He covered the last part of the way to the site where Jesus is believed to have been born in Bethlehem on foot.
Once there, he was received by Christian representatives.
Tens of thousands of visitors are expected over the Christmas holidays, far more than in the past two years when coronavirus restrictions were in place.
The Israeli Tourism Ministry said it expected at least 120,000 pilgrims from all over the world.
A huge Christmas tree with a star on top adorns the square in front of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, now a small town in the West Bank.
In his Midnight Mass sermon, Pizzaballa warned that violence was increasing in the Holy Land.
“With our eyes, we see that violence seems to have become our main language, our main way of communicating.
“Violence is increasing, first of all in the language of politics,” Pizzaballa told worshippers.
“This year, moreover, we have seen a terrible increase in violence in Palestinian streets, with a death toll that takes us back decades.
“It is a sign of the worrying increase in political tension and the growing unease, especially among our youth, regarding the increasingly distant resolution of the ongoing conflict,” Pizzaballa added.
Israel’s army has been conducting more raids in the West Bank, following a wave of terror in Israel in the spring.
According to the Ministry of Health in Ramallah, more than 140 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces this year, many of them minors.
Israel conquered the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967.
The Palestinians want the territories for their own state, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Pizzaballa said that the Palestinian issue no longer seems to be the focus of the world’s attention.
“This, too, is a form of violence, which hurts the conscience of millions of Palestinians, left increasingly alone and who, for too many generations, have been waiting for an answer to their legitimate desire for dignity and freedom,” he maintained.
In their Christmas message, the patriarchs and heads of the churches in Jerusalem also lamented what they said was an increase in attacks on Christians, discrimination, and a declining Christian population.
“Such a disheartening atmosphere has led to a lack of hope, especially among our Christian youth, who increasingly feel unwelcome” in the land of their ancestors, the message read.
The percentage of Christians has continued to decline in the Holy Land.
Out of about 5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, fewer than 2 per cent are Christian.
According to the latest figures from the Israeli Bureau of Statistics, there are about 185,000 Arab Christians living in Israel. (NAN)