Crowds watched a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in Manger Square on Saturday.

Christmas celebrations are returning to Bethlehem as the shaky ceasefire holds in Gaza.

For the past two Christmases, most businesses in the traditional birthplace of Jesus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank were shuttered and eerily empty.

But on Saturday evening, crowds watched a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony in Manger Square and restaurants bustled with families and – a hopeful change in the Palestinian city that’s been reeling since war broke out in Gaza.

“It’s not like it was before the war,” 30-year-old restaurant owner John Juka said. “But it’s like life is coming back again.”

Tourism and religious pilgrims have long been a prime economic engine for Bethlehem. Around 80% of the Muslim-majority cit

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