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

For a second straight year, the war raging in Gaza has kept pilgrims and tourists away from Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, where Christmas tourism makes up about 70% of the city's economy. Imtiaz Tyab has more.

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.

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AP) — Bethlehem prepared Tuesday to mark another somber Christmas in the traditional birthplace of Jesus under the shadow of war in Gaza.

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,

This Christmas season, the Christian community in Gaza is spending the holiday mourning incalculable losses amid the ongoing war with Israel.

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.

Happiness comes from what happens. Joy comes from a much deeper place, and it doesn’t matter what’s going on around you."