\u201cThis is the first holiday we\u2019ve celebrated in two years, and we are happy that the war has ended,\u201d Trazi, 11, told an NBC News camera crew.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to celebrate the glorious birth of Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n
For two years, Christmas has gone without celebration for the tiny Christian community in the war-torn Gaza Strip, where more than\u00a070,000 Palestinians have been killed\u00a0in Israel\u2019s war against Hamas, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The war began with Hamas\u2019 Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which more than 1,200 people were killed and 251 people were taken hostage.<\/p>\n Although the fighting and\u00a0routine Israeli strikes\u00a0have largely paused across the enclave since the ceasefire came into effect in October, the devastation has loomed over the Christmas celebrations this year, with much of Gaza’s population living out of tents and food supplies still limited.<\/p>\n George Anton, a coordinator for the Christian community in Gaza, said the celebrations were limited strictly to prayers inside the church building.<\/p>\n \u201cThere will be no activities for children, no programs for the elderly, no family gatherings like we used to organize,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are still emerging from the aftermath of war.\u201d<\/p>\n But inside, the Christmas tree was decorated, carols were sung, and some people who had lost family members and entire homes broke down in tears. People appeared dressed up, some wearing United Nations jackets. An Arabic sign with the words \u201cThe Birth of a New Hope Adorns the Holiday\u201d was set up next to a lighted tree, where children took pictures.<\/p>\n \u201cWe decorated the Christmas tree, set up the Nativity scene and decorated the church,\u201d Dawar Sabagh, 17, said.<\/p>\n Sabagh said he felt this Christmas was different than the previous two, and it was at least a day that has felt somewhat normal compared to the almost nonstop war of the last two years.<\/p>\n \u201cThis Christmas has a better atmosphere. There is peace, there is no war, and for now, we are done with the war. Thank God,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Even though a ceasefire is in force, many haven\u2019t been able to return to their homes because much of the enclave has been reduced to rubble. The Israeli military remains inside Gaza, though it has withdrawn\u00a0to positions behind a \u201cyellow line\u201d\u00a0separating areas under Israeli and Palestinian control.<\/p>\n Trazi said he was first displaced nearly two years ago following Israeli bombardment and has lived in the church since.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope next year will be better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Edward Sabaa, 17, shared mixed feelings. \u201cI don\u2019t feel real joy,\u201d he said, \u201cbut we try, in every way, to make this day special.\u201d<\/p>\n Before the war, Christians in Gaza would\u00a0make a trip to Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank\u00a0or visit Jerusalem, but Gaza\u2019s borders remain closed to civilians even as the ceasefire continues.<\/p>\n \u201cOur situation remains unstable and uncertain, and we are still deeply affected by what we have lived through,\u201d Anton said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s been two years since Jehan Trazi last celebrated Christmas. But now that a\u00a0ceasefire is in place in Gaza, children like Trazi finally got to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":182,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[24,75],"class_list":["post-181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-christmas","tag-gaza"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=181"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":183,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181\/revisions\/183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Image:](\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-760w,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2025-12\/251225-gaza-2-nd-ea07e8.jpg\")
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