Devoid of visitors, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem’s Old City is haunted by an unusual quiet.
The holiest place in Christianity has been emptied of its normal throngs of visitors by the war between Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip.
Briton Noel Gomez, a Catholic, organises Christian pilgrimages and stood where the faithful say Jesus Christ was crucified, interred and resurrected.
It was practically empty.
“I’m shocked to see this,” he told AFP. “I thought maybe at least 50 or 100 people here. It’s only me and you here now.”
