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

Hundreds gathered at the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem in the West Bank as the leader of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land marked the second Christmas Midnight Mass under the shadow of the war in Gaza.

It is already the second Christmas in Bethlehem to be marked by Israel's war in Gaza. Tourists and pilgrims have stopped coming to the city almost altogether, and the economic situation seems even bleaker than last year.