Locked down in the Holy Land: Bethlehem closes to contain coronavirus

A priest walks past the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, a day after spraying sanitizers as a preventive measure against the coronavirus. AFP

Palestinian police officers stand guard outside the Church of the Nativity that was closed as a preventive measure against the coronavirus. Reuters

A Palestinian street vendor stands by his bread cart in the deserted Manger Square, opposite the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank. AFP

A man walks past closed shops in West Bank city of Bethlehem on March 6, 2020. EPA

The crossing gate between the Israeli occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem and Jerusalem remains closed. AFP

A closed security corridor leading from the Israeli occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem to Jerusalem remains closed on March 6, 2020. AFP

Palestinian security forces stop a vehicle at a checkpoint in Beit Jala on the outskirts of Bethlehem. AFP

A man walks along a wall decorated with Christian icons and votive offerings in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. EPA

An employee stands at the reception desk of the empty entrance hall of a hotel in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. AFP

An empty souvenir shop in the biblical city of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, currently under lockdown due to identified cases of COVID-19 coronavirus. AFP

An empty restaurant in Bethlehem after the city went into lockdown on March 6 following the first cases of the deadly coronavirus in Palestine were discovered AFP

An empty souvenir shop in the biblical city of Bethlehem after the Palestinian government announced a month-long state of emergency late on March 5 after the first seven cases were identified. AFP

A man walks past closed shops as businesses shut as one of the preventive measures against the coronavirus in West Bank city of Bethlehem. EPA

Palestinian security forces man a checkpoint in Beit Jala on the outskirts of Bethlehem, currently under lockdown due to COVID-19 coronavirus. AFP

Palestinian security forces wearing masks block the entrance to the crossing gate between the Israeli occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem and Jerusalem. EPA

Tourist busses wait at an Israeli checkpoint as preventive measures taken against the coronavirus in Beit Jala, near Bethlehem. EPA

The gate leading to Rachel's Tomb in the Israeli occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem remains closed following a lockdown on the biblical city. AFP

A member of the Palestinian security forces is assisted into a protective suit before delivering food supplies to a hotel under quarantine. AFP

Members of Palestinian security forces wear masks as a preventive measure against the coronavirus as they stand guard outside a hotel in which staff tested positive in Bethlehem. AP

Palestinian workers unload food supplies to deliver to a hotel under quarantine in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on March 7, 2020, a day after a lockdown on the biblical city was announced upon discovering the first Palestinian cases of the disease. AFP

Palestinian workers unload food supplies to deliver to a hotel under quarantine in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on March 7, 2020, a day after a lockdown on the biblical city was announced upon discovering the first Palestinian cases of the disease. AFP

Palestinian policeman delivers supplies to the hotel staff which tested positive to coronavirus to a hotel in Bethlehem. AP

A Palestinian policeman stops tourist busses as preventive measures are taken against the coronavirus. AP

A Palestinian man walks past closed shops in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on March 6, 2020. AFP

The storied Church of the Nativity is indefinitely closed, the crossing points between Jerusalem and the biblical Bethlehem are sealed shut, a group of tourists are in isolation and the city is on lockdown after the first cases of coronavirus were discovered in the occupied West Bank last week.

The streets of Bethlehem, usually teaming with the faithful, are empty just weeks ahead of the busy Easter holiday season.

The announcement by the Palestinian tourism ministry last week to close the church and stop hotels accepting foreign visitors threatens to devastate the vital tourism industry in the town where Jesus is believed to have been born. The site is just the latest holy site disrupted as the virus spreads across the Middle East.

The Church of the Nativity was closed after suspicions that four Palestinians had caught the virus, prompting a flurry of measures that included banning all tourists from the Israeli-occupied West Bank for an unspecified amount of time and shutting down other places of worship in Bethlehem for two weeks.

Health officials screen the temperature of workers on a Nile cruise ship near Luxor, Egypt. According to Egypt's Health Ministry, 12 people tested positive for coronavirus on a Nile cruise ship coming from Aswan and heading to Luxor. EPA

People look at a man wearing a protective mask as a means of prevention against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the Al Rahman mosque, after Friday prayers, in the southern suburb of Maadi, on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt. REUTERS

Revolutionary Guard members disinfect an ATM machine to help prevent the spread of the new coronavirus in Tehran, Iran. AP Photo

Iraqi medical staff rest after checking passengers' temperature, amid coronavirus outbreak, at Najaf airport, Iraq. REUTERS

The outbreak map dashboard showing statistics on the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States during a briefing from Johns Hopkins University on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. AFP

A sanitation worker wears a protective face mask after a case of coronavirus was confirmed in the country, at Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima, Peru. REUTERS

Children walk past an image of Mona Lisa with a protective face mask after further cases of coronavirus were confirmed in Barcelona, Spain. REUTERS

Empty shelves at a Walmart as people have started to rush and stock first necessity products over fear of a coronavirus outbreak, in Los Angeles, California, USA. EPA

A couple wear face masks as they ride an escalator at a shopping mall in Beijing. AP Photo

Soldiers from The High Command of Chemicals under Vietnam's Ministry of National Defence spray disinfectant as a precaution against the coronavirus on Truc Bach street in Hanoi, Vietnam. A 26-year-old Vietnamese woman recently back from Europe has tested positive for coronavirus, the first confirmed case after weeks. Since the outbreak began, the country has reported only 17 cases of COVID-19, 16 of whom have been cured and released from hospital. EPA

A camera operator wears a protective mask as British Columbia Premier John Horgan, Health Minister Adrian Dix, back right, and provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, hidden, take questions during a news conference about the provincial response to the coronavirus, in Vancouver, British Columbia. AP

US President Donald Trump (C) holds a picture of the coronavirus with US Health and Human Service Secretary Alex Azar (L), CDC Director Robert Redfield (2nd R), and CDC Associate Director for Laboratory Science and Safety (ADLSS) Dr. Steve Monroe (R) during a tour of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. AFP

The Palestinian health ministry later said a total of seven Palestinians from Bethlehem have tested positive for the virus, the first cases reported in the Palestinian territories.

It said the seven worked at the Angel Hotel where a group of Greek tourists stayed during a tour of Israel and the Palestinian territories in late February. The tourists tested positive for the virus after returning to Greece.

Thirteen Americans are among 40 staff and visitors being isolated in the Angel Hotel in Beit Jala on the outskirts of Bethlehem. The hotel was one of the first areas of coronavirus concern in the Bethlehem area. The 30-day state of emergency and travel restrictions were brought in after the workers tested positive.

Palestinian security forces wearing masks and gloves were stationed around the hotel on Saturday, as they have been since the first cases were announced.

"It was going to be the trip of a lifetime," Chris Bell, 42, lead pastor of the 3Circle Church in Fairhope, Alabama, told Reuters by video chat from the second floor of the Hotel.

"The 13 of us would be what I would call a community of faith," Pastor Bell said.

"What we're doing is encouraging each other every day, we are reminding one another that we love each other. We are reminding each other that we trust in God and that he has a plan for it," he said.

His church works with a school in Bethlehem, part of the reason for their visit to the Holy Land, he said.

Things "went bad" for the group from Alabama on Tuesday when they learned they had shared the hotel with a Greek tourist who apparently carried the coronavirus, said Pastor Bell.

They left the next morning for a trip but were called back to the hotel the next day and told to go into quarantine.

He said they were awaiting test results and expected to be in quarantine for 14 days, meaning they still had nine to go.

The group has not left its hotel floor and everyone wears gloves and masks when they leave their rooms, said the pastor, adding that his wife Nan was with him and their three children in the United States being looked after by friends and family.

He thanked the Palestinian, Israeli and US, officials who were dealing with their care, and said the hotel had made sure they were getting enough food, water and medicine.

"Even if we need to be quarantined, we're hoping that the United States, our own country, will possibly fly us home," he said. "And if they need to quarantine us there for a time we understand that. But, you know, we need to get home," he said.

Built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was born in a manger, the Church of the Nativity is one of several tourist and holy sites to shut their doors over concerns about the virus, which has infected over 100,000 people and killed more than 3,000 globally.

A bearded clergyman walked outside and locked the church’s wooden door with a large key. A team of workers dressed in white overalls arrived with jugs of cleaning materials and walked through a side entrance to disinfect the building. Tariq Al Ali, one of the workers, said it was the second time his team disinfected the church.

“We have disinfected many institutions in the past week. We are under pressure,” he said.

Saif Saboh, a Palestinian tour guide, said a number of groups had cancelled visits in recent days. He said he has stopped shaking hands or getting too close to tourists. “I’m terrified,” he said. “Any tourist could be infected.”

The virus has disrupted Muslim worship across the Middle East. Saudi Arabia banned pilgrimages to the holy city of Makkah, while Iran has cancelled Friday prayers in major cities. Iraq cancelled Friday prayers in Karbala, where a weekly sermon is delivered on behalf of the country’s top Shiite cleric.

The Church of the Nativity receives thousands of tourists a day, according to Palestinian officials, but through the Easter season the number jumps.

Elias Al Arja, the head of the Bethlehem hotel owners union, angrily accused authorities of caving in to panic. “This will cause huge damage to the economy. We have 3,000 workers in the tourist sector and they will all go home. Who is going to feed their families,” he asked.

Anton Suleiman, the mayor of Bethlehem, acknowledged the economic impact, but said “public safety is the most important thing to us.”

Israeli officials said they were working closely with their Palestinian counterparts to contain the virus. Cogat, the Israeli military liaison agency to the Palestinian territories, said it had delivered 250 test kits to Palestinian health teams and was coordinating joint training sessions for Israeli and Palestinian medical workers.

For the time being, other major places of worship in the Holy Land remained open. Israeli officials said there were no special precautions at the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray, though hand sanitizing stations were placed at the site.

“In this time of distress, there is nothing more appropriate than coming to pray at the Western Wall,” said Shmuel Rabinowitz, the rabbi who oversees the site.

The nearby Al Aqsa mosque compound welcomed thousands of worshipers for Friday prayers. The Islamic Waqf, which administers the site, said the buildings have been disinfected and the sermon was brief.

Israel, which has 17 confirmed virus cases, has taken strict measures in a bid to stave off an outbreak, including banning the entry of visitors from around 10 countries.

On Thursday, German airline Lufthansa said it and its Austrian and Swiss subsidiaries were cancelling flights to and from Israel for three weeks starting Sunday because of the restrictions.

Israeli airline El Al, which has cancelled dozens of flights to countries with outbreaks, announced Wednesday that it was laying off 1,000 employees.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the government will set up an “emergency cash flow assistance fund” for businesses deemed essential to the economy. It was not immediately clear if that would apply to El Al.