BETHLEHEM, West Bank — Christians celebrated Bethlehem’s merriest Christmas in eight years Wednesday, with hotels booked solid, Manger Square bustling with families, and Israeli and Palestinian forces cooperating to make things run smoothly.
The festivities in the West Bank town contrasted sharply with Hamas-run Gaza. While revelers in Bethlehem launched pink fireworks from a rooftop, militants fired more than 80 rockets and mortar shells at Israeli towns and villages, sending people scrambling for bomb shelters.
The latest attacks and an Israeli airstrike appeared to have buried a six-month cease-fire that expired last week.
But 45 miles away, outside the Church of the Nativity, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, good-natured crowds of pilgrims and townspeople gathered for the midnight Catholic Mass that is the holiday’s highlight.
Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal said in an address during the service that true security comes from God.
“War does not produce peace; prisons do not guarantee stability. The highest of walls do not assure security,” said Twal, the Roman Catholic Church’s top cleric in the Holy Land. “Peace is a gift of God, and only God can give that peace.”
Earlier, a dozen pilgrims from India, Canada, Britain, the U.S. and elsewhere sang impromptu renditions of Christmas carols.
David Bogenrief, 57, of Sioux City, Iowa, played the trumpet.
“Jesus was the prince of peace, and he can bring that peace to you. We pray for you,” Bogenrief told a gaggle of children who gathered to listen.
In Manger Square, vendors hawked roasted peanuts and Santa hats.
Many in the square were Muslims out to enjoy their town’s annual moment at the center of world attention.
“Bethlehem is like the soul of the universe, and it’s like an explosion of love here,” said Stefano Croce, 46, a fashion photographer from Rome.
Bethlehem has suffered from the Israeli-Palestinian fighting of recent years and is now surrounded on three sides by concrete slabs and fences — part of a barrier Israel has built against Palestinian suicide attackers, some of whom came from Bethlehem.
