The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has requested today end of the “river of blood” and of the “immense sacrifices” of the Palestinian people in a Christmas greeting message, a celebration that takes on special relevance in Bethlehem, where Christian tradition places the birth of Jesus.
“The river of blood, the immense sacrifices, the hardships and the heroic resilience of our people in their land are the path to freedom and dignity,” says the president of the Palestinian Authority, which governs small areas of the occupied West Bank.
Every December 24, Bethlehem – center of the Palestinian Christian community – celebrates a traditional parade with music bandsprior to the arrival of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem on foot to officiate a mass in the Church of Saint Catherine, the Catholic basilica of the Nativity.
But this year, Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa – the Vatican’s religious envoy to the Holy Land – will arrive in Bethlehem in a solemn procession, without music or festive events, to mourn the high number of Palestinian deaths in the war in the Gaza Strip. that exceed 20,200 as the Israeli offensive continues.
Occupied West Bank It has also experienced its deadliest year since 2002, the peak of violence of the Second Intifada, with some 510 dead, more than half since October 7, when the war began in the enclave.