GAZA, May 16: Palestinian fighters freed last week from the Israeli siege of the Church of the Nativity are local heroes in the Gaza Strip.

Speaking engagements and audiences with well-wishers at beachfront hotels are a far cry from weeks under Israeli army siege in the Bethlehem church, where they ate lemon tree leaves as food ran out and hid behind columns during gunfights.

“You are in our hearts. We are your family,” said Mahmoud al-Habbash, who was among a stream of Palestinians who dropped in to visit some of the men on Thursday.

“You are our heroes.”

Israeli forces pushed into Bethlehem on April 2 during a West Bank offensive launched after Palestinian suicide attacks killed scores of Israelis.

Soldiers besieged the fourth-century Byzantine church after 200 Palestinians — militants, police and civilians — took refuge there from the Israelis.

The army lifted the siege and left Bethlehem last week after the Palestinian Authority agreed that 13 fighters in the Christian shrine who were wanted by Israel would go into exile.

This week, European Union foreign ministers endorsed a deal to resettle the 13 militants, now being held in Cyprus, in several EU states.

Twenty-six others considered by Israel to be less serious offenders were sent to Gaza.

One was Mazen Hussein, a militant in the armed wing of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat’s Fatah faction and on the Bethlehem drug enforcement unit when he entered the church.

He now sits in a hotel on the Mediterranean Sea, fielding invitations to give speeches in Gaza on topics related to the Palestinian uprising that erupted in September 2000 after peace talks stalled.

“When the call for the battle was made, ranks and positions were cancelled. We all became soldiers under the service of our people,” said Hussein, freshly shaved of the beard he grew during 39 days holed up in the church.

Palestinian police with assault rifles guard the hotel entrance but do not interfere with the flow of visitors.

“We appreciate their concern but sometimes I feel it is too much,” said Khaled al-Hamdallah, one of the six policemen or security officers among the 26, the rest of whom are militants.—Reuters