BETHLEHEM, May 10: The volatile 38-day siege at Bethlehem’s Nativity Church ended on Friday after topsy-turvy negotiations the previous night yielded a final deal under which the Palestinians and Israelis agreed to temporarily dispatch the 13 Palestinians on Israel’s “most wanted” list to Cyprus.
The first of the 123 Palestinians walked from the church into the closed-off military zone of Manger Square early in the morning, bringing a dramatic finish to the sole remaining confrontation from Israel’s six-week invasion of the West Bank.
But even as tensions eased in Bethlehem, the Israeli army readied for strikes on the Gaza Strip, the bastion of Hamas, which claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s kamikaze blast near Tel Aviv that left 17 dead and 55 injured.
Four people were lightly wounded on Thursday morning in a grenade or bomb attack in the southern Israeli town of Beersheva, close to the Gaza Strip. Police arrested the two men seen fleeing the scene.
The thirteen Palestinian fighters, five of whom belonged to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a hardline offshoot of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah party, were the first to exit the church, revered by Christians as the birthplace of Jesus.
They left Israel for Cyprus aboard a British air force Hercules transport plane at noon on Friday, arriving in Cyprus an hour later.
Diplomatic sources said several countries — Austria, Canada, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg and Spain — had agreed to accept the 13.
After their halt in a three-star seafront hotel in Cyprus, their final destination will likely be decided on Monday at the European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels.
A second batch of 26 Palestinians were expected to be jailed in the Gaza Strip, but upon their arrival, a Palestinian security official said the men were to be set free.
“They have arrived in part of Palestine and they are free in their homeland,” Colonel Salem Dardonah told reporters at the Erez crossing point into the Gaza Strip.
“They will not be held, not even for an hour, nor will they be judged.”
They were first to be taken to a Palestinian ministry building in Gaza City, another official said.
The 84 other people trapped in the church were released, including 10 pro-Palestinian activists who were arrested by the Israeli army after initially refusing to leave the church.
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, in Rome for talks, said the full withdrawal from Bethlehem, the last flashpoint in Israel’s largest military operation of the past two decades, was a “question of hours or days”.
For his part, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat welcomed the end of the church standoff, describing it as “a very important step”.
Pope John Paul’s special envoy to the Middle East, French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, called it “a great piece of news” and a “first step” along the difficult but necessary path toward “a fair and lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians”.
After the 10 pro-Palestinian activists finally exited the church, US experts moved in to recover weapons left inside by the Palestinians.
MOBILIZATION: The Israeli army on Thursday called up reservist soldiers in the buildup to the operation in Gaza, military sources said without giving any numbers. The government had authorized the mobilization of 20,000 reserves for its the West Bank campaign that began on March 29 but not all were used.
The scope and duration of the threatened Gaza strike was unclear.
Effi Eitam, a minister from the extreme-right National Union, told Israeli radio on Thursday the offensive would combine air attacks with ground operations.
But Israeli sources said generals had presented a plan for a major, one-shot assault on the Gaza Strip, which is one of the most densely populated areas in the world and had been spared the brunt of Israel’s recent drive to crack down on suicide bombings.
Gaza Strip public security chief General Abdel Razaq al-Majeida said he expected Israeli forces to strike “at any time” but added: “We think it will be a limited response.”
In Washington, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer appeared to sound a note of caution, saying “Israel has to be very mindful of its responsibilities to protect peace in the region and work toward a vision of peace”.
But asked whether his comment amounted to a “red light” for Israel, Fleischer retorted: “The United States does not give Israel any lights.”
Arafat has scrambled to stave off a major Israeli attack.
He went on Palestinian television on Wednesday to read a statement in Arabic ordering his security forces to “prevent all terrorist operations against Israeli civilians”.—AFP
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