In most years, by this time, the celebrations of the glorious holidays have long been underway in Gaza. The Gaza Strip is a small area inhabited by 2,300,000 citizens, between 1,000 and 1,300 of them Christians who live in safety and peace among the Muslim majority.

Gaza's Christians could not celebrate or experience any joy on Christmas for the second consecutive year as Israel continues its brutal war in the enclave. Christians, like other people in the Gaza Strip, are also deprived of access to basic necessities.

Faith leaders and residents in Bethlehem are grappling with how to mark the festive holiday while fellow Palestinians continue to be killed.

Some say that the community is in danger of losing its 1,600-year foothold in the enclave and that it is far from certain those who have fled will ever feel safe enough to return home.

The city of Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, will not have the usual trappings of the city's favorite holiday: no public Christmas tree, no raucous scouts march,

As Christmas arrives, the small Christian community in the Gaza Strip is again facing a season mired in war. Once a time marked by family gatherings, decorations and liturgies, the holiday this year will be spent in makeshift shelters in partially destroyed churches standing amid the ruins of a war-torn enclave.