The Middle East’s only accredited Father Christmas rose from his armchair to see if there were any visitors outside his grotto, copper-coloured bells jingling from his boots as he stood.

Usually, there would be crowds of young families waiting in line to meet him at Santa’s House in Jerusalem, but these days, with war raging in Gaza, there is little sign of festive cheer in the Old City.

This year, for the first time in recent memory barring the height of the Covid pandemic, the normally bustling streets stand eerily empty with shops and cafes dormant behind shutters.

The tourism-dependent city is struggling with a shortfall in visitors, and grieving for the loss of life in Gaza.

But Issa Kassissieh, Jerusalem’s only Father Christmas, remains determined to bring festive cheer to the city.

“I have the same message of peace as before,” Mr Kassissieh, 45,said from behind a thick white beard, as Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas is You played in the background.

“If we stop what we do – what about the children? When we light the Christmas tree, we send the message of peace around the world.”

Mr Kassissieh, who for most of the year works as a basketball coach, prides himself on being the only “accredited” Santa Claus in all of the Holy Land and even in the Middle East, having completed a course at a Santa school in Michigan eight years ago.

His journey started in the early 2000s when he stumbled upon his father’s Santa suit that he used to put on for his children and decided to take a walk to the Old City’s Jaffa Gate where a Christmas tree was being installed.

“I looked at the people: their eyes, especially children’s – wow – they would light up, happy smiling,” Mr Kassissieh said. “From this moment I said: I want to give happiness to children.”

After remodelling the ground floor of his family home into a grotto complete with Santa’s armchair, toys and sweets, crowds have been lining up to meet him every year.

Thanks to a small team of volunteer “elves” helping to keep things organised, Mr Kassissieh said he welcomed 25,000 visitors last December and gave away three tons of chocolate, the biggest expense of the whole enterprise.

This year, he has had to scale back his operations.

You can no longer take a picture with Santa and get it printed on a fridge magnet instantly, and, on the day The Telegraph visited, some of Santa’s helpers appeared bored by the lack of visitors.

On a recent Monday night, Jerusalem’s Santa received just five families.

The visitors this year are exclusively locals and have included Arabic-speaking Russian mothers with their sons, the family of an Armenian priest, and a Palestinian family from the West Bank who spent two hours in traffic driving from Bethlehem, which has been under an Israeli security lockdown since Oct 7.

On the plus side, all the children and their parents got enough time to sit on Santa’s lap and pose for photos.

Mr Kassissieh is careful not to talk about politics, but admits that the war in Gaza is affecting the Palestinian Christian community as a whole.

These days, he said, he tries to “keep a low profile” and avoid going around in his Santa suit so as not to attract unnecessary attention from far-Right Israeli activists.

Even before the war started, a surge in incidents and attacks on Christians were reported in the Old City.

On Advent Sunday, the chief executive of Jerusalem’s YMCA, a 1930s compound with an imposing tower which these days serves as a hotel, conference centre and a hub for social and sports activity, went to pick up Mr Kassissieh from his home so that he could make it to the organisation’s annual Christmas party safe and sound.

The YMCA had been torn about whether to hold any festivities at all in light of the devastation in Gaza, but in the end decided on a low-key ceremony with minimal Christmas lights, an orchestra playing and Mr Kassissieh officiating over a tree lighting ceremony.

On a good year, the group’s courtyard in central Jerusalem would hold 1,500 partygoers, with more people spilling out behind the gate and bringing traffic to a standstill, the organisers said.

A Palestinian family from East Jerusalem who came to the party with a three-year-old girl sporting a Christmas tree-shaped crown with flickering lights said few of their Arabic-speaking friends and neighbours are here as they have been avoiding West Jerusalem since the start of the war, either fearing for their safety or to boycott Israeli businesses.

“We don’t feel like celebrating this year at all, but we’re trying to keep the Christmas spirit for the sake of the child,” said a 33-year-old woman, who asked to be identified as Meryam. “We tell her about Christianity, what values we have. Things are very different this year. You have to hide how sad you feel.”

Many Palestinians, even though they are not Muslim and have nothing to do with Hamas or its ideology, have been spooked by a wave of arrests of East Jerusalem residents and Arab Israelis over social media posts.

What some would call an expression of sympathy for civilians in Gaza could be construed as an endorsement of Hamas as Israeli officials insisted there would be “zero tolerance” for backing the terrorist group in public.

At least 100 Arab citizens have been detained, most on allegations of incitement over social media posts, since Oct 7, according to Adalah, the Arab minority rights group.

The Telegraph did not manage to find a single Christian Palestinian family at last weekend’s Christmas party at the YMCA to go on record to speak about the holiday season.

‘They can label you a criminial’

A mother of a 12-year-old, who asked to be identified as Rasha, said she, her parents and husband had a dilemma whether it was ethical or not to go to a party in the middle of a war, dance and drink mulled wine or eat sahlab, a traditional milk pudding.

She explained why she was fearful for her name to be published. “If you speak your mind about, for example, that you feel sorry about children dying on both sides – they can label you a criminal,” said the woman, whose family is originally from Nazareth.

“I see very few people from East Jerusalem here. I understand why people are not celebrating.”

Mr Kassissieh, with his red Santa suit, round glasses and bushy eyebrows, elicited a sea of smiles as soon as he walked into the courtyard of the YMCA. He still thinks celebrating is the right thing to do, even if the festivities are very low-key this year.

“People have been coming to me, saying thank you for opening the house – there is nothing going on, no activity in the Old City now,” he said.

When Mr Kassissieh was about to light up the Christmas tree at the YMCA, he told the audience he’d like to replace the customary countdown with a more appropriate message.

“Jerusalem is the heart of the world. When we have peace in Jerusalem, we will have peace in the world,” he said, before the crowds chanted “hope, love, peace” with him, and the lights on the tree flickered on.