BETHLEHEM, West Bank — In the little town of Bethlehem, Christmas this year is barely a whisper. Palestinian scouts paraded through the streets but without their traditional instruments of drums, horns and bagpipes. There was no jubilant countdown to the ...

Hundreds gathered at the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem in the West Bank as the leader of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land marked the second Christmas Midnight Mass under the shadow of the war in Gaza.

BETHLEHEM, — Bethlehem marked another somber Christmas Eve on Tuesday in the traditional birthplace of Jesus under the shadow of war in Gaza. The excitement and cheer that typically descends on the West Bank during Christmas week were nowhere to be found.