Today, thousands of people flocked to Bethlehem's manger square.

It's the spot where Christians believe Jesus Christ was born.

It's in the occupied West Bank, and celebrations were canceled the last two years because of the Israel-Hamas war.

For Palestinians who live in Bethlehem and work in Jerusalem, the distance is not far, about

five miles, but taking the bus this short way sometimes becomes an ordeal.

NewsHour producer Carl Bostek looks at what life is like for Palestinians who live there.

In Bethlehem, this bus is loading up with passengers to take them to work in Jerusalem,

but they may already be late for work.

This is the bus you take every morning?

How long have you been doing that?

Uh, five days.

Rubimadi is a nurse at a Jerusalem hospital who specializes in dialysis treatment.

But it's the ride to work before she can even think about what the day we're bringing at the hospital that makes her more anxious.

What it will be like this morning at the checkpoint into Israel.

Despite leaving so early, she already thinks she may be late. Almost every day, we're late for our jobs at the hospital.

Also, we could wait for a long time in this cold weather,

and it's possible that they ask us to exit the bus even while it's raining,

so they can search it.

So we always worry about our morning journey to our job with all of these checkpoints.

And it's what can happen at a checkpoint that can cause so much anxiety and change everything.

There was a person who used to work in the hospital and was posting on Facebook during the war.

The Israelis canceled her permission, so she can't work here anymore. Do you even feel like it's Christmas?

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