Hamas and Israel traded accusations on Wednesday over delays in finalising a ceasefire and hostage release deal, after both had reported progress in the latest round of Gaza truce talks.

Indirect negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States have taken place in Doha in recent days, rekindling hope for an agreement between the two warring parties that has so far proven elusive.

On Wednesday, both sides accused the other of throwing up roadblocks, while Israeli President Isaac Herzog urged the country's leadership to move towards a deal.

A key Syrian rescue group and an activist told AFP on Wednesday a burial site outside Damascus was likely a mass grave for detainees held under former president Bashar al-Assad and fighters killed in the civil war.

In a vast walled area located near the Baghdad Bridge, some 35 kilometres (22 miles) from the capital, AFP journalists visiting the site saw a long row of graves more than one metre deep, mostly covered with cement slabs.

Angry protests broke out Wednesday in Syria over a video showing an attack on an Alawite shrine, with a war monitor saying one demonstrator was killed in Homs city.

In an unrelated incident in Tartus province, a stronghold of deposed ruler Bashar al-Assad's Alawite minority, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor reported deadly clashes over the attempted arrest of a former official.

Hundreds of Christians in war-ravaged Gaza City gathered at a church on Tuesday, praying for an end to the war that has devastated much of the Palestinian territory.

Gone were the sparkling lights, the festive decorations, and the towering Christmas tree that had graced Gaza City for decades.

The Square of the Unknown Soldier, once alive with the spirit of the season, now lay in ruins, reduced to rubble by relentless Israeli air strikes.

Amid the rubble, the faithful sought solace even as fighting continued to rage across the coastal strip on Tuesday.

With no Christmas tree or decorations adorning the Church of the Nativity, revered as the birthplace of Jesus Christ, holiday cheer was absent in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem on Tuesday.

But for some, like Jerusalem resident Hisham Makhoul, spending Christmas in the holy city provided an "escape" from the Israel-Hamas war raging for more than 14 months in the Gaza Strip.

AFP photographer Sameer al-Doumy never dreamed he would be able to return to the hometown in Syria that he escaped through a tunnel seven years ago after it was besieged by Bashar al-Assad's forces.

Douma, once a rebel stronghold near Damascus, suffered terribly for its defiance of the former regime, and was the victim of a particularly horrific chemical weapons attack in 2018.

"It is like a dream for me today to find myself back here," he said.

"The revolution was a dream, getting out of a besieged town and of Syria was a dream, as it is now being able to go back.

Sarah Latifa had feared that her Christian community in Syria may struggle to celebrate its first Christmas since Islamist-led rebels toppled longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad earlier this month.

But at a church in Damascus's historic centre, surrounded by some 500 faithful who were singing psalms on Christmas Eve on Tuesday, she could breathe a sigh of relief.

"It wasn't easy to come together in the current circumstances and to joyfully pray, but thank God, we did it," Latifa told AFP at mass at the capital's Syriac Orthodox cathedral of Saint George.

Syria's new leaders announced Tuesday that they had reached an agreement with the country's rebel groups on their dissolution and integration under the defence ministry.

Absent from the meeting were representatives of the US-backed, Kurdish-led forces that control swathes of Syria's northeast.

Christians gathered at the Church of the Nativity in the holy city of Bethlehem on Tuesday to mark a solemn Christmas overshadowed by war, as Pope Francis led mass in the Vatican.

In Bethlehem, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, festive decorations were missing for a second consecutive year.

The crowd of several hundred paled in comparison to the throngs of tourists and pilgrims of Christmases past -- a reflection of the sombre mood as the war between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip churns on.

Palestinian security forces deployed around the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank holy city of Bethlehem on Tuesday, as the faithful prepared for another solemn Christmas overshadowed by the war in Gaza.

An unusual calm enveloped Manger Square, the heart of the Palestinian city dominated by the revered church that marks the site where Christians believe Jesus Christ was born.

The white-walled compound and its surrounding plaza were empty, save for a few vendors selling coffee and corn and a significant contingent of journalists, an AFP reporter saw.