now earlier journalist sami sokol in jerusalem gave us a snapshot of the christmas celebrations in bethlehem. we've seen a record number of tourists and pinworms visiting 'd both bethlehem and jerusalem this year and what as added to the festive atmosphere is the fact that the pope francis has given a relic this size a fragment of wood that has been in rome for nearly 1400 years and this is believed to have been part of the major part of the created where jesus christ lay so it was received you with great. ness and the belief here is that it will draw more tourists to visit the city on the. israeli authorities have prevented yet again gazans from leaving and visiting the west bank visiting beslan and visiting jerusalem and even though last year they give it to mission for 700 palestinian christians to leave the gaza strip and visit this year the number was only 300 so the disappointment in gaza was very high amidst very strong condemnations from the various churches. semicircle speaking asked to us from jerusalem let's take a look at some of the other stories making news around the world 2 s