{"id":334301,"date":"2025-12-24T08:16:02","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T13:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/?post_type=to4_article_post&p=334301"},"modified":"2025-12-24T11:02:54","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T16:02:54","slug":"gaza-will-mark-christmas-with-silent-bells-frozen-nights-and-grief","status":"publish","type":"to4_article_post","link":"https:\/\/truthout.org\/articles\/gaza-will-mark-christmas-with-silent-bells-frozen-nights-and-grief\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaza Will Mark Christmas With Silent Bells, Frozen Nights, and Grief"},"content":{"rendered":"

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For the third consecutive year, Christmas will pass in Gaza without lights and without fanfare. Bells will not ring, and decorations that once briefly softened the Strip\u2019s pain will be absent from streets long familiar with loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2023, Christmas arrived in Gaza under the weight of fear and terror, at a time when the war had been ongoing for only two months. Back then, many Palestinians \u2014 Muslims and Christians alike \u2014 believed it was impossible for a new year to begin while the war was still underway. There was a shared sense of hope that 2024 would bring the war to an end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I clearly remember how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s statement \u2014 declaring that 2024 would be \u201ca year of war\u201d \u2014 was met with disbelief and mockery. The assumption was that the world would not allow such a reality to unfold. What followed, however, surpassed even our darkest expectations.<\/p>

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