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People attend a midnight mass in St. Catherine's Catholic Church connects with the Church of Nativity in the West Bank city of Bethlehem December 24, 2008. Thousands of pilgrims flocked to Bethlehem on Wednesday for the Christmas mass. [Xinhua Photo]
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On Wednesday evening, Israeli airstrike killed at least one Palestinian militant, after more than 60 mortar shells and Katyusha and Kassam rockets pounded southern Israel throughout the day.
Earlier in the day, Gaza Latin Church pastor Manuel Musalam announced that the 4,000 Palestinian Christians living in Gaza won't celebrate Christmas this year and won't do the midnight Christmas mass, in a protest against the Israeli blockade imposed on Gaza and the Israeli threats of invasion.
Even in Bethlehem, under the festive atmosphere, the Israeli-built security fence surrounding the city also reminds people that peace has not prevailed.
In his speech delivered at the midnight mass at the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve, Latin Patriarch of the Holy Land Fuad Twal, head of the Roman Catholic Church in the Palestinian territories prayed for peace in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
"We are seeking the peace that we missed, the peace that brings humanity its dignity back, which has been absent over the past years and was mixed with the blood," Twal said.
"Peace is a gift from God and it is the best solution for conflicts and differences. Wars can bring neither peace nor security, while walls, however tall they become, would never bring safety," he added.