BETHLEHEM, May 3: Efforts to restart talks to end the standoff at Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity collapsed on Friday after a deal to deliver food to the people holed up inside fell through, Palestinian negotiators said.

Dozens of civilians, clergy and Palestinian security men have been stuck in the church since April 2 when Palestinians rushed in to evade Israeli forces reoccupying Bethlehem in their West Bank offensive.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Salah Taamari said Israeli officials told his team when it arrived to supervise the delivery that no food would be let in and that Palestinian negotiators could not go into the shrine unless they promised to bring out a list naming everyone inside.

“We cannot go on negotiating with people who do not honour what we agree upon,” Taamari told reporters, speaking on the Orthodox Christian Good Friday, the day on which many Christians believe Jesus was crucified.

“They had informed us that the food was ready, and even that the food was hot,” Taamari said.

Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment.

Food is scarce inside the 1,400-year-old building, revered by Christians as standing on the spot where Jesus was born. Some people who have left the church in recent days said they were living on lemon peel and grass.

Kristen Schurr, a peace activist from New York, said she was inside the church and told Reuters by telephone she thought there were still about 180 people inside, with damaged pictures on the walls and a pockmarked statue of the Virgin Mary.

“Some people are not feeling well because they have been eating leaves from lemon trees,” she said. “People are just passing time, but they have a routine every day. Right now they are mopping up the floor.”—Reuters