DUBAI, Dec 7 (Reuters) - Fifty-five Iranians deported from the United States will return to their home country in the coming days, Iran's foreign ministry said on Sunday, in the second such deportation under President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.

In September, officials said the U.S. had identified about 400 Iranians to be deported, with a first flight carrying 120 people making its way to Tehran via Qatar's capital.

Christmas cheer returned to the traditional birthplace of Jesus Christ on Saturday as Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank lit up a tree for the first time since the war in Gaza began over two years ago.

Covered in red and gold baubles, the Christmas tree standing metres away from the Church of the Nativity on Manger Square has become a symbol of hope.

At the end of a two-hour ceremony, the tree was illuminated to cheers, its yellow lights twinkling and a bright red star on top shining against the clouded night sky irradiated by a luminescent, almost full moon.

Hundreds of people demonstrated on Saturday in the Tunisian capital against the government under the slogan "opposition is not a crime", calling for the release of jailed activists.

The rally in Tunis was called after the recent arrests of three opposition figures convicted of "conspiracy" against the state.

Tunisia emerged from the Arab Spring era of revolts as a democracy but, after Saied staged a sweeping power grab in 2021, rights groups have criticised a major rollback on freedoms.

By Alexander Cornwell

BETHLEHEM, West Bank, Dec 6 (Reuters) - A giant Christmas tree adorned with red and gold baubles stands in the West Bank city of Bethlehem for the first time since 2022.

The Palestinian city, revered by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus, had refrained from public Christmas celebrations over the past two years as war raged in Gaza.

But as a precarious ceasefire in Gaza enters its second month, the city held a ceremony on Saturday night, lighting up the 20-metre tree at the edge of Manger Square.

By Tarek Amara

TUNIS, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Tunisians took to the streets on Saturday for a third straight week to protest against President Kais Saied's expanding crackdown on the opposition, critics and NGOs, urging the release of political prisoners.

Protests against Saied are growing as rights groups accuse him of using the judiciary and police to suppress opponents and to cement an autocratic one-man rule.

Saied denies having become a dictator or using the judiciary against opponents.

A United Nations Security Council delegation on Saturday urged all parties to uphold a year-old ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, expressing support for a state weapons monopoly at the end of a Lebanon visit.

A November 2024 ceasefire was supposed to end more than a year of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah militants, but Israel has kept up strikes on Lebanon.

Israel has mainly said it is targeting the Iran-backed group, and has maintained troops in five south Lebanon areas it deems strategic.

By Samia Nakhoul

DOHA, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told Reuters on Saturday that a credible Palestinian civil administration and a vetted, trained police force should be in place to allow Hamas to disarm, saying the group is prepared to hand over governance of the enclave.

In an interview on the sidelines of the Doha Forum, Fidan said that without those initial steps, expecting Hamas to disarm in the first phase of the ceasefire deal is neither "realistic nor doable."

Qatar and Egypt, guarantors of the Gaza ceasefire, called on Saturday for the withdrawal of Israeli troops and the deployment of an international stabilisation force as the necessary next steps in fully implementing the fragile agreement.

The measures were spelt out in the US- and UN-backed peace plan that has largely halted fighting, though the warring parties have yet to agree on how to move forward from the deal's first phase.

By Samia Nakhoul

DOHA, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told Reuters on Saturday that he believed Turkey and the United States would find a way to remove U.S. CAATSA sanctions "very soon", and added the NATO allies had started working on the issue.

Washington removed Ankara from its advanced F-35 fighter jet programme and imposed the sanctions in 2020 over its acquisition of Russian S-400 air defence systems. Turkey has called the move unjust, and voiced hope that the sides could overcome the issue during President Donald Trump's second term.

It took Egyptian actor Mona Zaki more than a year's preparation to take on the hardest role of her career -- the iconic singer Umm Kulthum, a legend in the Arab world.

Marwan Hamed's "El Sett" ("The Lady") premiered this week at the Marrakech International Film Festival, where Zaki told AFP about the daunting task she faced.

"I was very scared at the beginning," she said. "I didn't know where to start."

Zaki is one of Egypt's more recognisable actors but her fears were not unfounded.