As the yuletide approaches, air passengers are facing increasing discomfort over the high cost of tickets.

Checks by our correspondent showed that ahead of Christmas and New Year, many seats have been booked; and as the festive period draws nearer, available seats are becoming more expensive.

The eastern routes are the most affected, with Enugu flight tickets selling between N171,000 and N200,000.

Checks by our correspondent indicate that the base fare to Port Harcourt is N99,000 and projected to hit N138,000 as bookings increase.

Lagos  to Owerri, from December 5 sells between N114,400 and N190,600 for a one-way economy ticket and N238,200 for business, while the base fare for Lagos-Calabar is N100,000.

At the moment, a 30-minute flight to Ilorin from Lagos costs between 100,000 and N143,000 for economy class.

Lagos to Sokoto ticket goes for N150,000, while a Lagos-Kaduna ticket is N143,000 as the base fare.

How airfares have doubled in one year

Our correspondent reports that an economy ticket one-way flight has increased from N50,000 (by 100 per cent) to over N100,000 on some routes. Airlines are blaming the hike on the prevailing economic challenges, especially high cost of operation.

The airlines had in 2022 increased a one-way ticket to N50,000 from N30,000. This had generated controversy in the travel industry.

But at present, a one-way economy ticket base fare is around N80,000.

Some of the factors cited by airline operators who spoke to our correspondent include high cost of aviation fuel, known as Jet A1, high exchange rate, multiple charges, among others.

Managing director/chief executive of Aero Contractors, Capt Ado Sanusi, recently told our correspondent that with the current rate of exchange, a one-way ticket should sell for over N130,000.

According to him, any operator pricing his ticket low might be cutting corners.

He said, “You can quote me on this: When the dollar was N460 we were selling a Lagos-Abuja ticket at N65,000, but the dollar is now twice that amount. And there is nothing we do in aviation that is not dollarised. You can imagine. So, we should be selling the ticket at N130,000.

“We don’t manufacture the aircraft; we don’t even refine the oil. So, what else do you do? We don’t even do the wheel on an aircraft. We also have to buy the bolts on the aircraft outside the country. So the moment the dollar is rising, we are affected. The fuel we buy is imported, as well as parts of the aircraft, so how would anybody tell me that he would not increase his ticket, except he is cutting corners. The only thing we can control is manpower.”

Another airline operator who spoke on condition of anonymity noted that the aviation industry was not immune to the inflationary pressure in the country.

He said with the rise in the dollar, airlines could not afford to maintain the old prices of tickets.

Daily Trust

After recording four bullish trade sessions last week, investors in the Nigerian Exchange gained N464 billion.

The market opened on a positive note and sustained the sentiment till Thursday, with investors earning N501 billion in the process

However, the market suffered a decline on Friday on the back of sell-offs in some banking stocks.

The NGX All Share Index concluded the trading week with a 1.18 per cent week-on-week increase, as it crossed the 72,000 mark to close at 72,389.23 points.

This appreciation in the ASI was underpinned by robust rallies observed across key sectors, namely banking, consumer goods, telecoms, energy, and industrials.

The financial services industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 1.373 billion units of shares valued at N22.165bn traded in 17,300 deals; thus, contributing 72.96 per cent and 70.08 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

The services industry followed with 97.008 million shares worth N616.265m in 1,949 deals, and the consumer goods industry, with a turnover of 86.370 million shares worth N2.136bn in 3,819 deals.

An analysis of the sectoral performances showed that the banking, consumer goods, and industrial indexes were up by 7.01 per cent, 0.22 per cent, and 0.24 per cent, respectively.

The upward movements were attributed to an increased buying interest observed in stocks such as Infinity Trust Mortgage Bank, Sterling Financial Holding Company, AccessCorp, Ecobank and Tantalizer Plc.

On the other side, the insurance and oil & gas indexes dipped by 0.96 per cent and 0.27 per cent, respectively, driven by price decline in Eterna, NEM Insurance, Sunu Assurance Plc and Conoil Plc.

Access Holdings Plc, Guaranty Trust Holdings Company Plc and Zenith Bank Plc (measured by volume) accounted for 491.533 million shares worth N15.466bn in 5,997 deals, contributing 26.12 per cent and 48.90 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value, respectively.

Despite the market’s overall positive performance, trading activity during the week was lower at a total turnover of 1.882 billion units of shares worth N31.630bn in 33,020 deals traded in the past week by investors on the floor of the Exchange, compared to a total of 2.423 billion shares valued at N45.070bn that exchanged hands in 34,704 deals in the prior week.

The top-gaining stocks for the week included Infinity Trust Mortgage Bank Plc, which gained 59.32 per cent to close at N2.82 per unit; SCOA Nigeria Plc, which added 28.89 per cent to close at N1.74 and Daar Communications Plc was up by 27.78 per cent to close at N0.46.

Other top gainers were John Holt, which added 20.54 per cent to close at 2.23; DEAP Capital Management & Trust Plc gained 14.75 per cent to close at N0.70, and Sterling Financial Holdings Company Plc went up 10 per cent to close at N4.18 per unit.

Conversely, stocks such as Secure Electronic Technology Plc lost 16 per cent to close at N0.63; Eterna Plc shed 11.83 per cent to close at N11.55 and Thomas Wyatt lost 11.14 per cent to close at N2.95.

As the market opens on Monday, analysts were of the view that the market may react to the newly-released inflation figure of 28.20 per cent for November and investors may take positions ahead of the release of corporate earnings reports.

Punch

Hafize Erkan, Turkey’s central bank governor, says she has been forced to move in with her parents due to the country’s inflation.

Speaking to Turkey’s Hürriyet, Erkan said her decision was hinged on the increase in rents due to the lack of social housing — of which the country’s rising inflation is a contributory factor. 

Erkan, who took up her post in June after two decades in the United States, said when there is a lack of supply and cheap financing, “balances can sometimes be disrupted”. 

“Here, the most important problem for us is the supply of social housing. There is an increase in rents due to the lack of social housing,” she said. 

She said “our President and Vice President also focus on this issue” of increase in rents.

“Home and food are very important. It has been a long time since our state solved the health issue. Is it possible that Istanbul has gotten more expensive than Manhattan? We haven’t found a house in Istanbul. It’s terribly expensive. We settled with my parents and are staying with them,” Erkan said. 

In November 2023, Turkey’s inflation rose 62 percent year-on-year.

This followed a 61.36 percent annual increase in October — a trend triggered by the depreciation of the Turkish currency, lira.

The Cable

Israeli army says it uncovered biggest Hamas tunnel yet

The Israeli army said on Sunday it had uncovered the biggest Hamas tunnel in the Gaza Strip so far, just a few hundred metres from a key border crossing.

Such was its size that small vehicles would be able to travel within the tunnel, an AFP photographer granted access to it reported.

The underground passage formed part of a wider branching network that stretched for over four kilometres (2.5 miles) and came within 400 metres (1,300 feet) of the Erez border crossing, the army said in a statement.

It cost millions of dollars and took years to construct, Israeli forces said, with the project lead by Mohamed Yahya, brother of Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, who is believed to have masterminded the October 7 attacks.

The honeycomb of passageways features a drainage systems, electricity, ventilation, sewage and a communication network as well as rails.

The floor is compacted earth while its walls are reinforced concrete and its entrance is a metal cylinder with 1.5 centimetre (half-inch) thick walls.

Footage released by the Israeli army, which it said was filmed by Hamas, showed a small construction vehicle being driven into the tunnel, an extensive temporary warehouse filled with pre-cast concrete for lining the walls and workers digging beneath the earth using crude power tools.

The Israeli army said it had found a large number of weapons stored in the tunnel, ready to be used in an attack.

- People, goods, weapons -

Hamas had expended huge resources in the project, said Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht, an army spokesman, and did so to "serve only one purpose -- attacking the State of Israel and its residents".

He said the tunnel was deliberately built near the Erez crossing, which Israel uses to facilitate the strictly controlled entry of Palestinian workers and those travelling for medical care.

"For Hamas, attacking the people of Israel continues to take priority over supporting the people of Gaza," he said.

The Islamist militant group launched a surprise attack against southern Israel on October 7, killing around 1,140 people, mostly civilians, and taking about 250 hostages, according to the latest Israeli figures.

In response, Israel set out to destroy Hamas and launched a relentless bombardment and ground invasion of the Gaza Strip to achieve that goal.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza says Israel has killed more than 18,800 people, mostly women and children, during the war.

Dubbed the "Gaza Metro" by the Israeli military, the labyrinth of tunnels beneath the coastal territory was initially devised as a way of circumventing the crushing Israeli-Egyptian blockade, in place since 2007.

Hundreds of tunnels were built under the border with Egypt and into the Sinai Desert, allowing people, goods and weapons to cross into Gaza from the outside world.

Since the 2014 war with Israel, the tunnel network has been expanded and Hamas has made frequent use of it to facilitate its rocket launches.

A study published on October 17 by the Modern War Institute at the US military academy West Point said there were 1,300 tunnels stretching over 500 kilometres (310 miles).

The Israeli army said at the beginning of December that it had discovered more than 800 tunnels, with 500 destroyed.

Reports in Israeli media last week said that the army was considering flooding the tunnels with seawater pumped from the Mediterranean and had already conducted succesful tests.

AFP

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russia and Ukraine launch swarm of drones at each other's territory

Ukraine and Russia launched a swarm of drones at each other's territories on Sunday as both sides step up attacks, with the Russian assault reportedly killing one person in Odesa and the Ukrainian strike targeting a Russian military airfield.

Ukraine's air force said on Sunday morning that it had destroyed 20 drones and a cruise missile that Russia launched overnight. Nine of the drones were downed over the southern Odesa region, with falling debris starting a fire in a residential house and killing one person.

The Russian defence ministry said in a social media statement that its air defence systems destroyed or intercepted a total of 35 Ukraine-launched drones over Lipetsk, Volgograd and Rostov regions. It did not say what was targeted or whether there was any damage.

Ukrainska Pravda media outlet reported late on Sunday, citing unnamed sources, that the Kyiv attack targeted the Russian Morozovsk airfield in the Rostov region in a reportedly joint operation of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Armed Forces.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

Vasily Golubev, the governor of the Rostov region that borders Ukraine in Russia's southwest corner, said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app that air defence forces repelled "a massive attack" by drones in the area of Morozovsk and Kamensk and that most of the air weapons were destroyed.

Several Russian military bloggers said, however, that one bomber at the air base suffered minor damage.

The Morozovsk air base is home to Russia's 559th Bomber Aviation Regiment, according to Russian state media, and is armed with Russia's most modern medium-range Su-34 bombers.

While Moscow and Kyiv deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia launched on Ukraine in February 2022, both sides have carried out numerous strikes on each other's infrastructure that is critical to their militaries.

Sunday attacks follow Ukraine's reports that its air defence systems had shot down 30 Russia-launched drones over 11 regions across the country on Saturday and Russia saying on Friday it had downed 26 Ukrainian drones over Crimea, the peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine’s top spy admits failure of forced conscription

Forcibly conscripted Ukrainians have been displaying subpar combat performance, Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kirill Budanov has admitted. Still, the harsh recruitment drive must continue, and no one will be able to “escape mobilization,” he warned.

The spymaster made the remarks during a panel discussion dubbed ‘2024: challenges and prospects,’ excerpts from which were circulated by local media on Sunday. Budanov backed the idea of continuing forced conscription into the country’s armed forces, claiming it was the only way to maintain its numbers.

“It is impossible to escape mobilization,” he stated. There are currently 1.1 million people in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. No recruiting can cover such volumes.”

“We don’t have that many people willing to do anything, actually. I’m not even talking about fighting,” he added, admitting that most of Ukrainians prefer to cheer the country’s troops away from the frontline.

The majority of our people, despite everyone shouting: ‘I am Ukrainian,’ ‘Ukraine above all,’ have not realized themselves as citizens of Ukraine.”

The country has long run out of volunteers, eager to fight Russian forces, with “everyone willing” having enlisted during the first six months of the conflict, Budanov said. Those who end up within the country’s military ranks must be properly motivated, the spy chief stressed.

“Who is being called up now?” he asked. “Unfortunately, there is no good answer here. If you don’t find motivation for these people, then regardless how many people are forced into or enlisted according to the law, their efficiency will be almost zero, which is basically what’s been happening lately.” 

Ukraine launched a general mobilization shortly after the start of the conflict with Russia in February 2022, barring most men aged 18 to 60 from leaving the country. The conscription drive has been riddled with assorted difficulties, namely rampant corruption and draft dodging.

Simultaneously, Ukrainian recruitment officers have been growing increasingly violent and lawless in their effort to catch more would-be soldiers, with numerous videos circulating online showing them chasing potential recruits in the streets, raiding public venues and even beating up their victims.

As of late, Ukrainian authorities admitted difficulties with bolstering the military’s ranks. Mikhail Podoliak, a top aide to President Vladimir Zelensky, admitted earlier this month that further mobilization in Ukraine is bound to be complicated, suggesting that the government needs to crank up its“propaganda element” to fix the situation and attract recruits.

Reuters/RT

From high-level policy debates and political manifestos to everyday news coverage, anxiety about economic growth is everywhere. In Germany, the government’s latest budget identifies stronger growth as a top priority. In India, national leaders are eager to reclaim their country’s place as the world’s fastest-growing economy. In China, where the prospect of deflation looms, the government is undoubtedly worried about hitting its 5% growth target for the year.

In the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, the leader of the opposition Labour Party, has vowed to secure the highest sustained growth in the G7 if given power, and the ruling Conservatives express similar ambitions (recall former Prime Minister Liz Truss’s now-infamous mantra: “growth, growth, and growth”).

But putting growth at the center of economic policymaking is a mistake. While important, growth in the abstract is not a coherent goal or mission. Before committing to particular targets (be it GDP growth, overall output, and so forth), governments should focus on the economy’s direction. After all, what good is a high growth rate if achieving it requires poor working conditions or an expanding fossil-fuel industry?

Moreover, governments have been most successful in catalyzing growth when they have been pursuing other goals – not treating growth itself as the objective. NASA’s mission to land a man on the moon (and bring him back) yielded innovations in aerospace, materials, electronics, nutrition, and software that would later add significant economic and commercial value. But NASA didn’t set out to create these technologies for that reason, and it probably never would have developed them at all if its mission had been simply to boost output.

Similarly, the internet emerged from the need to get satellites to communicate with one another. Owing to its widespread adoption, digital GDP has been growing 2.5 times faster than physical GDP for the past decade, and now the digital economy is on track to be worth an estimated $20.8 trillion by 2025. Again, such growth figures are the result of active engagement with the opportunities that digitalization presents; growth itself was not the goal.

Rather than focusing on accelerating digital GDP growth, governments should instead aim to close the digital divide and ensure that current and future growth is not based on Big Tech’s abuse of market power. Given how rapidly artificial intelligence is advancing, we urgently need governments that can shape the next technological revolution in the public’s interest.

More broadly, pushing growth in a more inclusive direction means departing from the financialization of economic activity and recommitting to investment in the real economy. As matters stand, far too many nonfinancial companies (including manufacturers) are spending more on share buybacks and dividend payouts than on human capital, machinery, and research and development. While such activities can boost firms’ stock price in the short term, they reduce the resources available for reinvesting in workers, widening the divide between those who control capital and those who do not.

Financialization is more often than not about value extraction and short-term profit maximization, rather than value creation for the sake of society as a whole. To achieve inclusive growth, we must recognize that workers are the real value creators, and their interests should feature prominently in discussions about income and wealth distribution.

In this sense, the UK Labour Party’s new stance on workers’ rights is worrying. In a knee-jerk attempt to appeal to corporate leaders and counter claims that it is “anti-business,” Labour has softened its previously stated commitment to stronger protections for gig workers. Yet investment-led growth and workers’ rights should not be regarded as competing priorities. Balancing corporate engagement with a commitment to workers is not only essential to achieving inclusive growth; it has already been proven to boost productivity and growth over the long term.

The economy will not grow in a socially desirable direction on its own. As I stressed ten years ago, the state has an important entrepreneurial role to play. After governments’ recent attempts to kick-start their economies following the pandemic, it is clear that we still need new thinking about how to achieve growth that is not only “smart,” but also green and inclusive.

Governments need economic-policy roadmaps with clear goals, based on what matters most to people and the planet. Public support for businesses should be made conditional on new investments that will “build forward better” toward a greener, more inclusive real economy. Consider the United States’ CHIPS and Science Act, which aims to boost the domestic semiconductor industry. The law prohibits funds from being used for share buybacks, and one could easily imagine additional provisions requiring that future profits be reinvested in workforce training.

But to help steer growth in the right direction, governments also must make goal-oriented investments in their own capabilities, tools, and institutions. The outsourcing of core capacities has undermined their ability to respond to changing needs and demands, ultimately reducing their potential to create purposeful growth and public value over time. Worse, as the public sector’s capabilities and expertise have been hollowed out, it has become more susceptible to capture by vested interests.

Only with the right capacities and competencies can governments successfully mobilize resources and coordinate efforts with businesses that are willing to work toward shared goals. A mission-oriented industrial strategy requires the public and private sectors to work together symbiotically. Done right, such an approach can maximize long-term public benefits and stakeholder value: innovation-led growth becomes synonymous with inclusive growth.

The question we should be asking is not how much growth we can achieve, but what kind. To achieve greater economic output that is also inclusive and sustainable, governments will need to embrace their potential to be value creators and powerful forces shaping the economy. Reorienting public organizations around ambitious missions – instead of obsessing over narrow growth targets – will allow us to tackle the grand challenges of the twenty-first century and ensure that the economy grows in the right direction.

Project Syndicate

There are plenty of frameworks you can use to make better decisions. Jeff Bezos uses the two-way door rule to identify reversible decisions and embrace a bias towards action. Southwest Airlines founder Herb Kelleher used the one-question rule to add clarity the decision-making process.

Science can also help you make better decisions. You can leverage your circadian rhythm. You can use the power of experience-based intuition.  You can even sleep on a decision (as long as you get a good night's sleep.)

Problem is, most frameworks won't necessarily help you make good decisions when your willpower reserves run low. When temptation trumps determination.  When your emotions work against you, not for you, and you struggle to stay whatever course you've chosen. 

See two employees arguing at the end of a long day and it's tempting to ease past and hope the problem goes away. Walk out of your third meeting in a row to find a note about a customer complaint and it's tempting to save that call for tomorrow. Hear your alarm go off at 6 a.m. and it's tempting to hit snooze and skip your morning workout.

When you aren't at your best, whether mentally or emotionally or physically, immediacy typically wins.

Unless you apply Suzy Welch's 10-10-10 Rule.

The 10-10-10 Rule

The framework is simple: before you make a decision, ask yourself three questions:

10 minutes from now, how will I feel about this decision? 10 months from now, how will I feel about this decision?  10 years from now, how will I feel about this decision?

It's easy to feel pretty good about a decision ten minutes from now, especially if instant gratification or conflict avoidance is involved. Taking a longer-term perspective gets your "future self" involved: your goals, your dreams, the kind of person you want to be, and re-establishes -- when you need it most -- continuity between "today you" and 10 months, and 10 years from now, you.

Research shows that re-establishing that perspective will instantly help you make better decisions.  One study shows that people with greater "present-future continuity" tend to exercise more. Another study shows they tend to be more financially prudent, and more likely to save money. Another showsthey tend to behave more ethically, both personally and professionally.

In fact, this study shows the degree of continuity you feel with your future self can actually predict your overall life satisfaction and well-being 10 -- yep, 10 -- years later.

As the authors of the study write:

The more connected you feel to your future self, the more likely you are to consider emotions you will feel later, not just now, like regret or guilt.

Take an interpersonal issue between two employees. Ten minutes from now, walking away will still feel good.

Ten months from now, when the bickering has escalated and spread to the people around them -- as it always does -- you'll wish you had dealt with the problem. Ten years from now, at least a few of your employees will still remember the example you didn't set... and will follow that example. How will that feel?

What you do today builds the foundation for what you will become. Who you will be in 10 months, and in 10 years, is the result of every decision you make -- and action you take -- today.

Because consistency, not intensity, produces long-term results, the choices you make and actions you take will either work for or against the goals and dreams you have for future you. 

And how, someday, you will feel about yourself.

If you want your future self to be kinder, smarter, fitter, more successful, wealthier, more generous -- whatever you hope your future self to be -- apply the 10-10-10 rule to the choices you make.

Because who you will be 10 months from now, and 10 years from now, starts with what you decide, and do, today.

And every day from now on. 

Inc

Olisa Agbakoba, former president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), says the current supreme court is the “worst” in his 45 years of legal practice.

Agbakoba spoke on Thursday in Abuja at a colloquium to mark the 61st birthday of Senate President Godswill Akpabio.

The colloquium was attended by President Bola Tinubu and many political stakeholders, including members of the national assembly.

Speaking at the event, Agbakoba narrated how the “mafia” in the National Judicial Council (NJC) rejected his application to join the bench of the apex court.

“I was the first, accompanied by my brother, Wole Olanipekun, who applied because we thought we were qualified to sit at the supreme court. The mafia there threw us out,” he said.

The senior lawyer asked the national assembly to make laws for the appointment of senior judges in the country.

Agbakoba said there is a difference between the administration of justice and judicial administration.

“We still mix the administration of justice, which the national assembly cannot interfere, with judicial administration, which the national assembly can make laws,” he said.

“There should be a law governing the appointment process of senior judges. We can’t leave it to the National Judicial Council. What the constitution says is that once you are 15 years, you are qualified.

“But the National Judicial Council and supreme court judges have formed a mafia, and we don’t get there.

“With the greatest respect, this is the worst supreme court I have seen in my 45 years of practice.

“It has to change. A challenge for the national assembly to enact a law that deals with judicial administration.

“I did not say administration of justice, you can’t go there because that is the internal workings of the judiciary but judicial administration, the national assembly can make laws.

“You pass a law so that I don’t depend on the chief justice of Nigeria if I want to be a judge, the law will be passed stating the criteria to become a judge.”

Over the past few months, the judiciary, especially the supreme court, has come under criticism over election-related judgments.

In October, Musa Dattijo Muhammad, a retired supreme court justice, in his valedictory speech, faulted the composition of the panel that delivered judgment on the presidential election petitions.

Muhammed also condemned the non-representation of the north-central and south-east zones in the apex court.

The retired judge also complained that the chief justice of Nigeria (CJN) had become too powerful.

The Cable

Bethlehem is gearing up for a subdued Christmas, without the festive lights and customary Christmas tree towering over Manger Square, after officials in Jesus’ traditional birthplace decided to forgo celebrations due to the Israel-Hamas war.

The cancellation of Christmas festivities, which typically draw thousands of visitors, is a severe blow to the town’s tourism-dependent economy. But joyous revelry is untenable at a time of immense suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, said Mayor Hana Haniyeh.

“The economy is crashing,” Haniyeh told The Associated Press on Friday. “But if we compare it with what’s happening to our people and Gaza, it’s nothing.”

More than 18,700 Palestinians have been killed and more than 50,000 wounded during Israel’s blistering air and ground offensive against Gaza’s Hamas rulers, according to health officials there, while some 85% of the territory’s 2.3 million residents have been displaced. The war was triggered by Hamas’ deadly assault Oct. 7 on southern Israel in which militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took more than 240 hostages.

Since Oct. 7, access to Bethlehem and other Palestinian towns in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has been difficult, with long lines of motorists waiting to pass military checkpoints. The restrictions have also prevented many Palestinians from exiting the territory to work in Israel.

City leaders fret about the impact the closures have on the small Palestinian economy in the West Bank, already struggling with a dramatic fall in tourism since the start of the war. The Palestinian tourism sector has incurred losses of $2.5 million a day, amounting to $200 million by the end of the year, the Palestinian minister of tourism said Wednesday.

The yearly Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem — shared among Armenian, Catholic and Orthodox denominations — are major boons for the city, where tourism accounts for 70% of its yearly income. But the streets are empty this season.

With most major airlines canceling flights to Israel, over 70 hotels in Bethlehem have been forced to close, leaving some 6,000 employees in the tourism sector unemployed, according to Sami Thaljieh, manager of the Sancta Maria Hotel.

“I spend my days drinking tea and coffee, waiting for customers who never come. Today, there is no tourism,” said Ahmed Danna, a Bethlehem shop owner.

Haniyeh said that while Christmas festivities have been cancelled, religious ceremonies will take place, including a traditional gathering of church leaders and a Midnight Mass.

“Bethlehem is an essential part of the Palestinian community,” the mayor said. “So at Midnight Mass this year, we will pray for peace, the message of peace that was founded in Bethlehem when Jesus Christ was born.”

George Carlos Canawati, a Palestinian journalist, lecturer, and scout leader, called his city “sad and heartbroken.” He said his Boy Scout troop will conduct a silent march across the city, in mourning of those killed in Gaza.

“We receive the Christmas message by rejecting injustice and aggression, and we will pray for peace to come to the land of peace,” said Canawati.

The enthusiasm of Bethlehem’s Christmas festivities have long been a barometer of Israeli-Palestinian relations.

Celebrations were grim in 2000 at the start of the second intifada, or uprising, when Israeli forces locked down parts of the West Bank in response to Palestinians carrying out scores of suicide bombings and other attacks that killed Israeli civilians.

Times were also tense during an earlier Palestinian uprising, which lasted from 1987-1993, when annual festivities in Manger Square were overseen by Israeli army snipers on the rooftops.

The sober mood this year isn’t confined to Bethlehem.

Across the Holy Land, Christmas festivities have been put on hold. There are 182,000 Christians in Israel, 50,000 in the West Bank and Jerusalem and 1,300 in Gaza, according to the U.S. State Department. The vast majority are Palestinians.

In Jerusalem, the normally bustling passageways of the Old City’s Christian Quarter have fallen quiet since the war began. Shops are boarded up, with their owners saying they are too frightened to open — and even if they did, they say they wouldn’t have much business.

The heads of major churches in Jerusalem announced in November that holiday celebrations would be canceled. “We call upon our congregations to stand strong with those facing such afflictions by this year foregoing any unnecessarily festive activities,” they wrote.

At the altar of Bethlehem’s Evangelical Lutheran church, a revised nativity scene is on display. A figure of baby Jesus wrapped in a Palestinian keffiyeh is perched atop a pile of rubble. The doll lies underneath an olive tree — for Palestinians, a symbol of steadfastness.

“While the world is celebrating, our children are under the rubble. While the world is celebrating, our families are displaced and their homes are destroyed,” said the church’s Pastor, Munther Isaac. “This is Christmas to us in Palestine.”

AP

Netanyahu says Israel is as 'committed as ever' to war after soldiers mistakenly killed 3 hostages

Three Israeli hostages who were mistakenly shot by Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip had been waving a white flag and were shirtless when they were killed, military officials said Saturday, in Israel’s first such acknowledgement of harming any hostages in its war against Hamas.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a nationwide address that the killings “broke my heart, broke the entire nation’s heart,” but he indicated no change in Israel’s intensive military campaign. “We are as committed as ever to continue until the end, until we dismantle Hamas, until we return all our hostages,” he said.

Anger over the mistaken killings is likely to increase pressure on the Israeli government to renew Qatar-mediated negotiations with Hamas over swapping more of the remaining captives, which Israel says number 129, for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel.

A senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, reiterated that there will be no further hostage releases until the war ends and Israel accepts the militant group’s conditions for an exchange. Netanyahu said Israel would never agree to such demands.

Israel’s account of how the three hostages were killed also raised questions about its soldiers’ conduct. Palestinians on several occasions have said Israeli soldiers opened fire as civilians tried to flee to safety. Hamas has claimed other hostages were previously killed by Israeli fire or airstrikes, without presenting evidence.

An Israeli military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to brief reporters in line with military regulations, said the hostages likely had been abandoned by their captors or had escaped. The soldiers’ behavior was “against our rules of engagement,” the official said, and was being investigated at the highest level.

The hostages did everything they could to signal they weren’t a threat, “but this shooting was done during fighting and under pressure,” Herzi Halevi, chief of the military’s general staff, said in a statement.

Halevi added: “There may be additional incidents in which hostages will escape or will be abandoned during the fighting. We have the obligation and the responsibility to get them out alive.”

The hostages, all in their 20s, were killed Friday in the Gaza City area of Shijaiyah, where troops are engaged in fierce fighting with Hamas. They had been among more than 240 people taken hostage during an unprecedented raid by Hamas into Israel on Oct. 7 in which around 1,200 people were killed, mostly civilians.

Speaking at a rally in Tel Aviv, Rubi Chen, father of 19-year-old hostage Itay Chen, criticized the government for believing hostages can be retrieved through military pressure. “Put the the best offer on the table to get the hostages home alive,” he said. “We don’t want them back in bags.”

The Israeli military official said the three hostages had emerged from a building close to Israeli soldiers’ positions. They waved a white flag and were shirtless, possibly trying to signal they posed no threat.

Two were killed immediately, and the third ran back into the building screaming for help in Hebrew. The commander issued an order to cease fire, but another burst of gunfire killed the third man, the official said.

Israeli media gave a more detailed account. The mass circulation daily Yediot Ahronot said that according to an investigation into the incident, soldiers followed the third man and shouted at him to come out, and at least one soldier shot him when he emerged from a staircase.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz said the soldiers who followed the third hostage believed he was a Hamas member. Local media reported that soldiers earlier saw a nearby building marked “SOS” and “Help! Three hostages” but feared it might be a trap.

Dahlia Scheindlin, an political analyst, said it was unlikely the killings would massively alter public support for the war. Most Israelis still have a strong sense of why it is being fought and believe Hamas needs to be defeated, she said.

“They feel like there’s no other choice,” she said.

The killings emphasized the dangers hostages face in areas of house-to-house combat like Shijaiyah, where nine soldiers were killed this week in one of the war’s deadliest days for Israeli ground forces. The military has said Hamas has booby-trapped buildings and ambushed troops from a tunnel network it built under Gaza City.

On Saturday, the Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum asserted that another hostage, 27-year-old Inbar Hayman, had been killed in Gaza. The group gave no details.

Hamas released over 100 hostages for Palestinian prisoners during a brief cease-fire in November. Nearly all freed on both sides were women and minors. Talks on further swaps broke down.

Hamas seeks the return of all Palestinian prisoners. As of late November, Israel held nearly 7,000 Palestinians accused or convicted of security offenses, including hundreds rounded up since the war began.

The war has flattened much of northern Gaza and driven 85% of the territory’s population of 2.3 million from their homes. Only a trickle of aid has been able to enter Gaza. Israel has said it would open a second entry point at Kerem Shalom to speed up deliveries.

The offensive has killed more than 18,700 Palestinians, the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Thursday. It does not differentiate between civilian and combatant deaths.

It was the ministry’s last update before the latest communications blackout in Gaza. “Now 48 hours and counting. The incident is likely to limit reporting and visibility to events on the ground,” said Alp Toker, director of NetBlocks, a group tracking internet outages.

The war has been deadly for journalists. Mourners held funeral prayers for Samer Abu Daqqa, a Palestinian journalist working for broadcaster Al Jazeera who was killed Friday in an Israeli strike. The Committee to Protect Journalists said the cameraman was the 64th journalist to be killed in the conflict: 57 Palestinians, four Israelis and three Lebanese.

In devastated Gaza City, resident Assad Abu Taha reported “violent bombardment” Saturday.

The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem asserted that two Christian women at a church compound in Gaza City were killed by Israeli sniper fire and that seven other people were wounded. The women were identified as a mother and daughter. Gaza has a small Christian community consisting of about 1,000 people. There was no immediate Israeli comment.

The United States, Israel’s closest ally, has expressed unease over Israel’s failure to reduce civilian casualties, but the White House continues to offer support with weapons shipments and diplomatic backing.

Israel and the U.S. remain far apart on who should run Gaza after the war. Washington wants to see a unified Palestinian government in Gaza and the West Bank as a precursor to eventual Palestinian statehood. A two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict enjoys broad international support.

Netanyahu reiterated Saturday that Israel will retain security in a demilitarized Gaza and that a Palestinian state would pose a threat to Israel. “I am proud to have prevented the establishment of a Palestinian state,” he said.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was traveling to Israel to continue discussions on a timetable for winding down the war’s intense combat phase. But Netanyahu and military leaders vowed to continue until “complete victory,” which the prime minister noted will take time.

AP