Thousands of pilgrims expected in Bethlehem for Christmas

Bethlehem, West Bank - Some 15,000 pilgrims are expected to visit Bethlehem Thursday and Friday to celebrate Christmas, Victor Batarseh, the mayor of the West Bank biblical city said. The hotels in the city are also fully booked, as they were last year, after a period in which Israeli-Palestinian violence, and Israel's stringent security measures, kept tourists away from the city revered by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus Christ.

Christmas celebrations are due to start at noon Thursday, Christmas Eve, with the annual procession led by the head of the Catholic Church in the Holy Land, Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal.

Twal will lead the Midnight Mass at St. Catherine's Church in the Nativity in Bethlehem in the presence of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian and foreign officials.

In his Christmas message, Twal expressed regret that "our dreams for a reconciled Holy Land seem to be utopia."

"Despite the praiseworthy efforts of politicians and men of goodwill to find a solution to the ongoing conflict, all of us, Palestinians and Israelis, have failed in achieving peace. The reality contradicts our dreams," he said.

"The best gift we seek, above money and wealth, is peace," his message, concluded.