Pilgrims celebrated Christmas Day in the ancient Bethlehem church on the spot where tradition holds Jesus was born.
This year’s turnout was the largest in years in Bethlehem and the celebrations have been marked by careful optimism amid ongoing Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Leaders expressed hope that the coming year would finally bring the Palestinians an independent state of their own.
The top Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land, Latin patriarch Fouad Twal, led a prayer for some 1,000 worshippers as bells rang and tourists from around the world flocked to the fourth-century Church of the Nativity to see the grotto that is Jesus’s traditional birthplace.
“The whole world now is looking at Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus,” Twal said in his annual address.
“The Holy Land is where Jesus was born in the grotto and we have to reflect this bright picture of Jesus by representing the morals of Jesus, the message of Jesus – the message of love and reconciliation.”
Bethlehem lies six miles south of Jerusalem.
Entry to the city is controlled by Israel, which occupied the West Bank in 1967.
Following a Palestinian uprising that began in 2000, the numbers of visitors to Bethlehem had plunged, including for Christmas. But thanks to a period of relative calm, they have been steadily climbing in recent years.