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

Some say that the community is in danger of losing its 1,600-year foothold in the enclave and that it is far from certain those who have fled will ever feel safe enough to return home.

The city of Bethlehem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the traditional birthplace of Jesus, will not have the usual trappings of the city's favorite holiday: no public Christmas tree, no raucous scouts march,

Israeli troops forced the evacuation of the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza and many patients, some of them on foot, arrived at another hospital miles away in Gaza City, the territory's health ministry said on Tuesday.

At least 28 people, including children, have died in a wave of Israeli military strikes throughout the Gaza Strip, according to Gaza's civil defence agency. A school sheltering displaced families was among the facilities struck, killing eight people including four children over the weekend, the agency said.