Church of the Nativity where tradition says Jesus was born, interrupting Christmas preparations and Israel’s plans to ease access to the Biblical town.
Internet footage showed how the gunmen of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of President Mahmoud Abba’s Fatah faction, appeared on the roof of city hall, pointing their weapons toward the crowd.
The hour-long standoff with police ended after Bethlehem’s governor reportedly promised to address their demands for jobs and pay. The episode revived memories of a five-week standoff between the Israeli army and gunmen who took over the Nativity Church in 2002.
SHARON HOSPITAL RELEASE
It came as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was released from hospital in nearby Jerusalem on Tuesday December 20, after suffering a mild stroke, saying he was fit and in a hurry to get back to work and apparently deal with the fragile security situation in the region.
Commentators said the incident in Bethlehem, five days before Christmas, was another sign of
growing lawlessness in the Palestinian territories and turmoil within long-dominant Fatah ahead of a January parliamentary election.
Dozens of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades members in the area reportedly also raided the Fatah offices in Khan Yunis firing in the air, while gunmen kidnapped two people for unknown reasons and drove off with them to an unknown destination. It came after the Israeli military promised to ease access to Bethlehem in a "calculated risk."
NO PERMISSION
In published statements, Israeli Lt. Col. Aviv Feigel said pilgrims will not need permission from the army to Bethlehem, and pledged that the military also will try to speed entry by conducting "spot checks of random tourist buses" rather than checking every bus.
Arab Israelis and Christian Palestinians will be allowed to drive into Bethlehem, Feigel reportedly said.
"We are taking a calculated risk by easing steps and that is because we are well aware of the importance of Bethlehem," Feigel added. He also said Palestinian Christians will be allowed into Israel to visit family. Restrictions are to be eased starting December 24 until January. 18, when the Armenian Church celebrates Christmas, he said.
MORE PILGRIMS
Some 250,000 pilgrims have come to the town of 30,000 since January, compared to 100,000 in all of last year, Feigel was quoted as saying. But Feigel reported that the quiet in Bethlehem is misleading as apparently half of the Israeli fatalities in 2004 were caused by attackers who entered Jerusalem from Bethlehem.
Last week, a car bomb was reportedly found on a road used by West Bank settlers traveling between Jerusalem and the Bethlehem area. Palestinian police alerted Israeli security to the car, and Israeli sappers blew it up safely, several media reported.
It was unclear what, if any, impact Tuesday’s standoff with militants in Bethlehem will have on Israel’s intended easing of restrictions around Bethlehem.
The troubles after elsewhere Israeli forces carried out aerial attacks targeting seven access routes in the northern Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement monitored by BosNewsLife.
"TERROR ACTIVITITY"
"This attack was in response to the continued terror activity originating from the Gaza Strip, including the firing of projectile rockets at Israeli communities," the IDF added.
It claimed the access routes are used "by terrorists to reach the areas from which they launch rockets into Israel. The objective of targeting these routes is to prevent the passage of terrorists to the rocket launching grounds, and to disrupt the repeated attempts to fire projectile rockets at Israeli targets."
Palestinian officials have said however that assassinations "only add fuel to the fire." Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said earlier that both sides must uphold the 10-month-old ceasefire. "We must maintain the cessation of violence, we must maintain the quiet, and I hope the Palestinians will not react in the chain of reaction, action or action reaction," he added. (With BosNewsLife News Center and reports from Israel and the West Bank).
