A record number of pilgrims from around the world estimated at over 100,000 have thronged Bethlehem, in the largest, merriest Christmas celebration seen in a decade in this biblical West Bank town where tradition holds Jesus was born.

The pilgrims flocked to the Church of the Nativity, built on the site of Jesus’ traditional birthplace, for prayers on Saturday morning as part of the annual holiday festivities.

The warm weather, a sharp decline in Israeli-Palestinian violence and an economic revival in the West Bank all added to the holiday cheer.

By nightfall, a packed Manger Square was awash in red, blue, green and yellow Christmas lights.

Merrymakers blasted horns, bands sang traditional Christmas carols in Arabic, Boy Scout marching bands performed and Palestinian policemen deployed around the town to keep the peace.

Israeli military officials, who coordinate movement in and out of the West Bank, said over 100,000 pilgrims had come to the town since Christmas Eve, compared to about 50,000 last year.

Hopes for peace

They said this was the merriest Christmas in Bethlehem in years and the crowds represented the highest number of visitors for the holiday in a decade.

Pilgrims and tourists sauntered around Bethlehem, posing for pictures and enjoying the morning sunshine, while others thronged the Church of the Nativity for Mass.

Worshippers also packed the Roman Catholic church built next to the grotto where the traditional site of Jesus’ birth is enshrined.

Both church officials and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas voiced hopes for peace.

Tears at Manger Square

Pat Olmsted, a 64-year-old teacher from Texas, was celebrating her first Christmas in Bethlehem and broke into tears as she stood in Manger Square.

“It just gives me a whole true meaning of the Bible. As I read the pages, it will mean so much more to me,” she said.

Bethlehem used to attract tens of thousands of tourists from around the world for Christmas celebrations, but attendance dropped sharply following the outbreak of the second Palestinian uprising in 2000.

Pilgrims have slowly been returning to Bethlehem since violence between Palestinians and Israelis slowed down over the past five years. The town’s 2,750 hotel rooms were booked solid for Christmas week, and town officials say more hotels are under construction.

Memories of bloodshed

But the bloodshed has left its mark. Visitors entering the town must cross through a massive metal gate in the separation barrier Israel built between Jerusalem and Bethlehem during a wave of Palestinian attacks last decade.

Only one-third of Bethlehem’s 50,000 residents are Christian today, down from about 75 percent in the 1950s. The rest are Muslims.

Some 500 members of the Gaza Strip’s small Christian minority left the blockaded territory on Thursday for the festivities in Bethlehem. About 3,500 Christians live in Gaza among 1.5 million Muslims.

Relations were traditionally good but there has been incidents of violence against Christians since the Islamic militant group Hamas took control three years ago.

The Israeli military Saturday said it attacked a “terror training facility” and a weapon smuggling tunnel in Gaza overnight. The coastal area’s Hamas rulers said nobody was hurt in the Israeli airstrikes.

Christians only make up for about 2 percent of the population in the Holy Land today, compared to about 15 percent in 1950. Like many other Christian communities across the Middle East, many have migrated to flee political tensions or in search of better economic opportunities.

Conciliatory call

The Roman Catholic Church’s top clergyman in the Holy Land, Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal, crossed through the metal gate in the separation barrier in a traditional midday procession from Jerusalem.

Later, he celebrated Midnight Mass, the peak of the holiday’s events in town.

In his homily, Twal issued a conciliatory call for peace between religions and urged an “intensification” of dialogue with Jews and Muslims.

“We need to unite and integrate the many values we have in common: prayer, piety, fasting, almsgiving, and ethical values,” he said.

“Our hope for Christmas is that Jerusalem not only become the capital of two nations, but also a model for the world, of harmony and coexistence of the three monotheistic religions,” he added.

“During this Christmas season, may the sound of the bells of our churches drown the noise of weapons in our wounded Middle East, calling all men to peace and the joy.”

Surreal moments

Raed Arafat, the owner of the Stars and Bucks Cafe, played Christmas songs over loudspeakers and handed out free Arabic coffee at his shop near Manger Square. Tourists snapped photos and bought mugs emblazoned with the cafe chain’s green logo, modeled after the American Starbucks company.

“There are more people this year,” an ecstatic Arafat said. “Christmas this year is not like every year because now there is more quiet.”

The holiday had its surreal moments. Many visitors were local Palestinians, including a large number of Muslim women whose faces were covered by veils. The loud Muslim call to prayer from a mosque next to Manger Square briefly drowned out the celebrations.

“Because of the hard situation and the pressure we are living in, we take advantage of any joyful moment and bring our children to play,” said Khitam Harazallah, a veiled Muslim housewife from the nearby Deheishe refugee camp, who came with her two young children.

Year of peace

With the end of fighting, the West Bank has undergone an economic revival in recent years, illustrated by new shopping malls and widespread construction projects in the bustling city of Ramallah.

But a deadlock in Mideast peace talks between Israel and the West Bank government of Mahmoud Abbas, along with a flare-up in violence between Israel and militants in the Gaza Strip, threatened to cast a pall over the celebrations.

Abbas, a Muslim, traveled to Bethlehem to greet the revelers, saying he hoped the coming year would finally bring peace. He also said the Palestinians were issuing a special postage stamp honoring Bethlehem.

“We are seekers of peace in the path of Jesus,” he said. “We hope that next year will be a year of peace by establishing the independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, living side by side with Israel in peace and security.”

Israel maintains an embargo on Gaza, which is governed by Abbas’ rival, the Islamic militant group Hamas. In a goodwill gesture, Israel allowed 500 members of Gaza’s tiny Christian community to travel to Bethlehem.

Dampening the holiday cheer, Israeli authorities said three Italian pilgrims were killed on Friday afternoon when their car crashed into an electric pole near the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel.