ATHENS, May 22: Palestinian fighters banished by Israel began arriving on Wednesday in EU states where they are being granted “temporary” refuge under an internationally-brokered deal hatched after much wrangling over their fate.

Nine of the guerillas on Israel’s most-wanted list arrived at Athens from the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, where two were to disembark, while a second plane with three aboard arrived in Rome.

The 12 — accused by Israel of being hardened terrorists — were on the final leg of their journey into exile after being holed up in a seafront hotel in the Cyprus resort of Larnaca since May 10.

They had been banished from Israel and the Palestinian territories under a deal that ended the Israeli army’s five-week siege of the Bethlehem Church of the Nativity.

A 13th activist, said to be the head of Palestinian intelligence services in Bethlehem, was staying behind in Cyprus for the time being.

Spain and Italy have agreed to take in three Palestinians each, Greece and Ireland two each, while Portugal and Belgium will take one each.

One of the men was taken to Larnaca airport in an ambulance, having been hospitalized on Tuesday with a stomach ulcer.

“A 13th person remains in Cyprus, most probably for a few weeks, until the 12 are absorbed in their long-term temporary stay, so he can either go to one of those existing countries or another EU member country,” said Cyprus Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides.

Diplomatic sources in Cyprus said the man left behind was Abdullah Daoud, head of Palestinian intelligence services in Bethlehem.

Yacovos Papacostas, head of the Cypriot police, said the 13th man would be free to move around the island under the same conditions as his compatriots in other countries.

Daoud is accused by Israel of masterminding several anti-Israel attacks, of selling weapons and of sheltering other guerillas who have fired on the Jewish settlement of Gilo facing Bethlehem.

Cassoulides expressed “the satisfaction of the Cyprus government that the operation has put an end to the standoff of the siege of the Nativity Church has now ended successfully.”

—AFP