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"We have never seen Bethlehem like this, not even during the time of COVID. The town is empty, sad."
That was Father Ibrahim Faltas, a senior Franciscan friar at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
Normally, he would be part of a large annual festival to mark Christmas, typically a major international drawcard for tourists.
This year, he says it's very different.
"Manifestations of joy and the manifestations that we are used to see every year are cancelled. Residents and pilgrims give holiday joys with no pilgrims. It is the first time for me to see Bethlehem like this. I have been here for 35 years - first time to see Bethlehem like this."
A Christmas tree would also normally be erected in Nativity Square - but this year, that's also not happened.
Hanna Hanania is the mayor of Bethlehem.
"Will not celebrate this year like the past years, setting the tree is a sign of celebration that we do every year and we light it up. Therefore, there will not be this year decoration and there will not be celebration to light a tree."
Bethlehem neighbours Jerusalem in the West Bank, and has been battered by Israeli-Palestinian clashes of years past.
But many townspeople are now especially gripped by the current conflict in the Gaza Strip, 50 kilometres away.
Amid the fighting, the tourists haven't come either, leaving the streets and plazas of the hilly town largely empty and sombre under a dry winter sun.
This Bethlehem resident, Maher Canawati, says the mood is sombre.
“The atmosphere is not so good. You can see sadness in people’s eyes, and also the presence is not as it used to be before the war. Everyone is thinking about how we can do things to help our people in Gaza and to send a cry to the whole world for total ceasefire in Gaza."
One of the Holy Land's custodians, Father Francesco Patton, says they will do their best to carry on.
"We will celebrate in sobriety. That means without the fanfare and without too many lights, in the most spiritual way and more in the families than in the square."
