BETHLEHEM, Dec 20: Militants briefly occupied the offices of the mayor of Bethlehem on Tuesday in the countdown to Christmas, highlighting the rampant security chaos in the Palestinian territories.

Around 15 masked members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of the ruling Fatah movement, burst into the building on Manger Square, next to the Church of the Nativity.

The militants then ordered all staff to leave and closed all the doors.

Mediators dispatched to the building managed to persuade those inside to end their occupation peacefully after about an hour, but not before the militants had pulled off a publicity coup designed to embarrass the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Members of the Brigades deployed by the entrance to the building said their colleagues had acted to protest at the Palestinian Authority’s failure to provide financial assistance to some 300 activists.

“They have chosen to do this today in order to draw the international community’s attention to this issue at a time when the eyes of the world are turned towards Bethlehem on the eve of Christmas,” said one Brigades member.

The Palestinian Authority has made efforts to incorporate members of the Brigades into the official security services, but activists who have been co-opted have complained that the government has not paid them.

A large number of police were sent to Manger Square, which will be the focus of Christmas festivities for thousands of pilgrims this weekend.

Local police chief Colonel Issa Hijjo also summoned armed reinforcements from neighbouring districts and threatened to use force to end the standoff.

However they were not called into action as negotiations involving the local governor, Salah al Taamari, and head of preventive security Majdi al Attari, ended with the gunmen leaving peacefully.

Bethlehem has been the scene of some of the most contentious events of the five-year-old Palestinian uprising.

Israel laid siege to the Church of Nativity for 38 days in April and May of 2002 before withdrawing its troops under a deal which saw 13 of the 123 Palestinians who had been holed up inside sent into exile.

—AFP