Wednesday, September 29, as Israeli soldiers pounded alleged militant positions killing at least six Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinian militants eluding the army crackdown killed two Israeli children in a rocket attack from Gaza in the midst of the Israeli incursion, designed to stop such attacks.
The deaths were seen as a major blow for the Israeli government which has pledged "to fight terrorism" and to prevent militant organizations of portraying a planned pullout of settlers from Gaza next year as a victory.
Wednesday’s gun battle came amid Palestinian anger over a car bomb planted by Israeli security forces in the Syrian capital Damascus, which killed a senior member of the Palestinian militant group Hamas Sunday, September 26.
Palestinian sources in Damascus say Izz el-Deen al-Sheikh Khalil, a leader in Hamas’ military wing, was killed while starting his car. Hamas immediately blamed Israel for the attack and vowed revenge.
Amid rising tensions, Israel continued the construction of a controversial security wall, a project it says is needed to prevent, or at least "dramatically reduce", suicide bombings and other attacks against Israelis. But Bethlehem Christians said their Biblical town and the neighboring Christian villages of Beit Jala and Beit Sahour will soon be "surrounded" by the wall, and warned it will "only make things worse."
3,000 CHRISTIANS FLEE
Lutheran minister Mitri Raheb told The Voice of America (VOA) network Wednesday, September 29, that nearly 3,000 Christians alone have already fled the area in the past four years. Palestinians Christians, who once dominated the so-called Christian triangle of Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahour, today reportedly account for less than one third of the inhabitants.
"Bethlehem will be surrounded on three sides by the wall and on one side by a highway, built on Bethlehem land but not accessible to Bethlehemite’s," said Raheb. "It’s only for the settlers and this basically will close the ring around Bethlehem. And there will be just three gates leading in and out of Bethlehem."
FEARS AND FRUSTRATION
Mitri Raheb’s recent book, called Bethlehem Besieged, Stories of Hope in Times of Trouble, chronicles the fears and frustrations of its residents through the uprising, military siege and construction of a security wall that will soon encircle the city. "It means an economic catastrophe because Bethlehem survives on tourism and were afraid that tourists would be prevented from coming," he said. "So economically, its a catastrophe."
While he spoke, the daily reality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict could be heard beneath his window; a tear gas canister exploded in the street as Israeli troops rounded up half a dozen young Palestinians, VOA reported.
The Bethlehem Bible College, where Palestinian Christians study, has often been in the cross fire, BosNewsLife learned earlier.
FEW TOUR BUSES
And as the violence continued, Jewish tour buses were seen visiting a sacred tomb near the entrance to Bethlehem, without going further. The few Christian tour buses that head toward Christian shrines in the city center do not linger, according to eyewitnesses.
Tourism has steadily dropped since the Palestinian uprising four years ago that enflamed the West Bank and since a month-long Israeli military siege of Bethlehem two years ago, when Palestinian fighters hid inside the Church of the Nativity.
That is not unnoticed by Michel Nasser, who heads Bethlehem’s Peace Center, across Manger Square from the church where several traditional churches believe Jesus was born.
"If you wanted to get a ticket to get in to the church, it used to take two months in advance, minimum, to get tickets," Nasser told VOA about the more profitable days he remembers.
"Now you can literally in the last minute get a ticket and go inside the church. And this is a sad thing."
