Siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem

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Part of the Operation Defensive Shield

Catholic section of the Church of Nativity, where the siege took place. Marks of Israeli bullets can be seen in the upper left corner

Date	April/May 2002.
Location	Bethlehem, West Bank
Result	Negotiated Palestinian retreat

Belligerents

Israel (Israel Defense Forces)

Fatah (Tanzim and Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades factions)

Strength

Unknown

200

Casualties and losses

N/A

The Siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem occurred during the April/May 2002 Israeli “Operation Defensive Shield” in the West Bank.

[edit] The siege

From March to April 2002 Israeli forces carried out “Operation Defensive Shield” in the West Bank. As a part of these large-scale military operations, Bethlehem was invaded in a declared effort to root out militants and stop the terror. On April 1, 2002, after an Israeli air attack, Israeli tanks surrounded Bethlehem. The next day, Israeli tanks and troops entered the city. In early May, Bethlehem was the last West Bank city where Israeli forces were still present in the wake of “Operation Defensive Shield”. They left only after the full attack, siege, and evacuation of the Church of the Nativity, which was the scene of a stand-off between the Israeli army and a group of Palestinians who had taken refuge inside the Church.

On April 2, 2002, approximately 200 Palestinians fled the advancing Israeli forces into the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. During the siege, the Church bellringer and nine Palestinians inside the Church were killed and many more wounded. While the Israelis were performing a psychological attack on the militants, a fire broke out. According to a PBS documentary, an IDF flare was responsible, but the cause is disputed. Frontline Following extensive negotiations, the Israeli forces laid siege to the Church for a total of 39 days, during which many civilians and Palestinian policemen left, some of whom were taken into temporary Israeli custody according to Frontline. Among the people still present in the Church in early May 2002 were 39 Palestinian men wanted by the Israeli army, as well as various civilians, clerics, policemen, the Governor of Bethlehem Muhammad al-Madani, and 11 people who caught the Israelis by surprise and ran into the Church with needed supplies on 2 May - ten foreign activists of the International Solidarity Movement and Carolyn Cole, a photographer of the Los Angeles Times. Apart from the fire the damage to the Church was negligible, although it was left strewn with used toiletries and dirty pots and pans, and also reeked of urine due to the unavailability of toilets inside the basilica. According to a Franciscan priest present inside the church "by choice" during the siege, 'the gunmen kept their weapons with them at all times, and in the first days took candelabras, icons, candles and "anything that looked like gold." Some of the valuables were later returned.'[1]

[edit] Negotiations

Negotiations over how to end the siege were arduous and broke down several times. Besides the Palestinian and Israeli negotiation teams, those involved included Greek Orthodox clerics from the Church of the Nativity and officials from the USA, the European Union and the Vatican. Finally, an agreement was reached to end the siege. Under this Agreement, 26 Palestinians from the Church of the Nativity were to be exiled in the Gaza Strip. Thirteen others were to be deported abroad.

On 9 May, 26 men, emerged from the Church into Manger Square, were taken on two buses to Gaza, under US escort, and passed through the checkpoint into Gaza on foot, after having been questioned at an Israeli army base. The following day, 10 May, the remaining 13 Palestinians left the Church. The 13 men were then taken on a bus to Ben Gurion Airport (outside Tel Aviv), from where a British military aircraft carried them to Cyprus. The remaining Palestinian policemen and civilians were released. Later the same day, the ten International Solidarity Movement activists were removed from the Church.

The 13 deportees arrived in Cyprus where they were to remain temporarily until the European Union, which had undertaken the will to receive them, would decide to which specific member states they would go. Staying at the Flamingo Hotel in Larnaca, 12 of the Palestinians were under constant supervision, had almost no access to the outside world, and had their freedom of movement limited to two floors inside the hotel, the one they lived on and the one where they took their meals^{[citation needed]}.

On 21 May, The European Union finally decided on the host countries for 12 of the 13 deportees. Italy and Spain would each take three, Greece and Ireland would each take two and Belgium and Portugal would each take one. On 22 May, the 12 Palestinians were taken under police escort to Larnaca airport. In the following days, they reached their destinations. No agreement was found with respect to the 13th man, Abdallah Daoud, described by Israel as “the most wanted of the wanted”^{[citation needed]}. He was eventually received by Mauritania on 25 November 2002.