With tourists staying away, once bustling Jerusalem Old City now ‘like a desert’

Over more than 100 days of the Gaza war, Rami Nabulsi’s antique shop in the Old City of Jerusalem has been virtually empty of customers. Still, he walks the cobble-stoned alleyways to open it every day.

The Old City, surrounded by ancient walls and home to sites sacred to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, is usually bursting with activity, crammed with worshippers and tourists from around the world.

Since the fighting started, the area has become “like a desert,” says Nabulsi, a Palestinian resident of the Old City in East Jerusalem.

“Jerusalem was meant to be a city of joy,” he said. “Now, when you walk in the city, even the walls are crying.”

Israeli authorities have increased security checks around the Old City amid fears of the unrest triggered by Hamas’s October 7 massacre spilling over, particularly around flashpoint holy sites.

Terrorists from Gaza launched a killing spree in southern Israel that day, massacring 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 253 people of all ages hostage to the Palestinian enclave. Israel responded with an aerial and ground military operation to dismantle Hamas’s terror infrastructure, which is now on its 111th day.

According to Hamas-run Gaza health authorities, more than 25,700 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since the war began, an unverified figure that is believed to include close to 10,000 Hamas operatives Israel has said it has killed during fighting in the Strip, as well as civilians killed by misfired Palestinian rockets.

The IDF says that 219 of its soldiers have been killed so far during the Gaza ground offensive.

The war has severely impacted the economy. Foreign tourists have been staying away across the country, with traffic at Ben Gurion International Airport down 78 percent from the previous year in November and 71% in December, according to figures from Israel’s Airport Authority.

In the biblical town of Bethlehem in the West Bank, hotels and other tourism businesses said they had one of their worst Christmas on record.

In Jerusalem’s Old City, Jews, Muslims and Christians used to pass through the gates every day to and from prayers, or to pick up a bit of shopping.

Now, whole rows of stores have shut their doors. They would rather save expenses, said Nabulsi, a jeweler.

His shop is still open, but doing next to no business.

He sits outside reading the newspaper, feeding the neighborhood’s cats and dusting the wooden shelves, waiting for customers.