Many of the remaining churches across Gaza scaled back or cancelled Christmas activities altogether, replacing them with small, private gatherings and prayers inside church walls because “there was no true sense of celebration,” Al Jazeera correspondent Hani Mahmoud reported.

Gaza’s Christian community, though small, is deeply rooted, and Christmas is traditionally a time centered on family, church and acts of goodwill.

This year, as in recent years under Israeli regime attacks, the focus has shifted from celebration to survival, with no sense of safety that would normally accompany such a day elsewhere in the world.

Meanwhile, although the calendar marked Christmas, many residents said it felt like just another day overshadowed by Israeli violence, ongoing attacks and unfolding tragedies across the Gaza Strip.

Like their Muslim neighbors, Christians spent the night listening to explosions and fearing what the morning might bring, as the Israeli military has not announced whether the operations it declared earlier have ended.

For now, the day remains defined by Israeli regime violence, the constant sound of drones and the uncertainty that dominates daily life in Gaza.

Separately, most of Palestine’s Christians live in the occupied West Bank and East Al-Quds, numbering between 47,000 and 50,000, with around 1,000 living in Gaza before the war.

The number of Christians in Gaza has steadily declined in recent years, leaving only a few hundred today, down sharply from about 3,000 registered in 2007.

During the war, Israeli regime attacks hit several Christian places of worship where many displaced Palestinians had sought shelter.

Although the Holy Family Church was not included by Israel in zones marked for expulsions, other churches in Gaza City, including the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius and the Anglican St Philip’s Church, were.

However, the nearly 550 displaced people sheltering in the Holy Family Church continue to mistrust the Israeli military, citing repeated past attacks on the church despite Israeli guarantees that places of worship are not targeted.

Many of those sheltering there remain traumatized and are struggling to rebuild any semblance of normal life.

In a broader context, more than 288,000 families across Gaza are enduring a severe shelter crisis as Israeli regime restrictions on humanitarian supplies worsen conditions for Palestinians displaced by the war, according to the territory’s Government Media Office.

According to United Nations figures, more than 80 percent of buildings across Gaza have been damaged or destroyed during the war, driving massive displacement and deepening the humanitarian catastrophe.