Tel Aviv – Tens of thousands of Christians from around the world have gathered on Saturday in the Holy Land to celebrate Christmas in Bethlehem.
Crowds had already begun thronging the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem's annual procession route from the Old City to the biblical town where Jesus is believed to have been born.
Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the top Roman Catholic spiritual leader in the Holy Land since his predecessor stepped down last summer, is expected to head the processions.
Later, Pizzaballa will deliver the midnight Mass in the Church of the Nativity, believed to mark the site where Jesus was born.
Approximately 120 000 tourists, half of whom are Christians, are expected to visit the Holy Land in December, according to statistics from Israel's Tourism Ministry.
In a Christmas message from Jerusalem earlier in the week, Pizzaballa called attention to the tragedies in Syria, Egypt and Iraq, and said that "words are not enough" to stop these tragedies: "We must combat poverty and injustice." He also addressed the "continuing obstacles to peace in Israel and Palestine" and praised Pope Francis' work.
Christians, once a much larger presence in the Holy Land, today make up about 2 per cent in Israel and the West Bank, and 0.1 per cent in the Gaza Strip.
Most local Arab Christians are Orthodox, who mark Christmas on January 7, but they include several tens of thousand Roman Catholics, who mark Christmas on December 25.