Four senior PA officials in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity

Ha'aretz | 4/06/02 | Amos Harel, Ha'aretz Correspondent, and agencies

[kattracks]

Colonel Marcel Aviv, in charge of IDF negotiations with the Palestinians holed up in the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, said Saturday that four senior Palestinian officials were also in the church.

According to Aviv, part of a group of armed Palestinians which stormed the basilica built on the traditional site of Christ's birth were the governor of Bethlehem, the chief of information in Bethlehem and the town's security chief.

An initial breakthrough was reached in negotiations that took place Friday between IDF troops and Palestinians in the church. Four of the sixty priests that had been held by in the church were released. Franciscan officials in Rome offered to mediate in the standoff, which began Tuesday.

The Israeli troops are under orders not to invade with force and have been calling on the some 250 gunmen inside to surrender, but the men continued to resist Friday.

The situation at the complex, which includes the Church of the Nativity, was "very grave," the minister-general of the Franciscans, the Reverend Giacomo Bini, told reporters. "We have 40 brothers and over 200 armed Palestinians. The brothers have shared their food but it is now running out, and we appeal to be allowed to leave the church to go and get supplies."

Bini said the Franciscans' top representative in Israel, the Reverend Giovanni Battistelli, is willing, together with other local religious leaders, to "mediate talks between the two groups - the Israeli soldiers besieging the exterior of the basilica of the Nativity and the over 200 Palestinians who have taken shelter in the monastery."

He also said that he had written to U.S. President George Bush "to ask him to ask Sharon to stop and to start a dialogue."

"We need people to lay down their arms but those in the church will not lay down their arms if they see those outside still have guns," Bini said.

Asked if the Israelis had destroyed a door to the courtyard, as gunmen and others inside the church had said, Bini replied: "They did destroy the door the same way the Palestinians destroyed a door trying to get in."

The IDF has denied the claim, saying soldiers did not make a move on the shrine.

Bini said there had been shots fired into the courtyard but no Israelis had entered the complex.


Besides the 40 Franciscan brothers, in the basilica complex there are four nuns and some 30 Orthodox and Armenian monks.

"Our brothers are tired psychologically and physically," Bini said, stressing, however that the Franciscans are not abandoning the place.

Before the violence, Bethlehem was a popular pilgrimage town. One of the most famous pilgrims was Pope John Paul II, who celebrated Mass in Manger Square, just outside the basilica, two years ago. He called Bethlehem "the heart of my pilgrimage."

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Tha Palestinians are handing out suicide belts while their laders are holed up in a Church.

[Jim Noble]

OK, men-cross the minefield.

I'm right behind you.