As part of Operation Defensive Shield, the IDF occupied Bethlehem and attempted to capture suspected Palestinian militants.[4] Dozens of them fled into the Church of the Nativity and sought refuge. IDF surrounded the site and besieged the suspected militants and non-militants at the site, which included approximately 200 monks resident in the church and other Palestinians who had arrived at the site for other reasons. The Franciscan Order maintained no hostages were held, while Israeli sources claimed the monks and others were being held hostage by gunmen.[5]
After 39 days, an agreement was reached, according to which the militants turned themselves in to Israel and were exiled to Europe and the Gaza Strip.
Prelude
The IDF expected the operation in Bethlehem to be relatively simple, after the Paratroopers Brigade had raided the city several times in the previous months. The mission was given to a reserve infantry brigade, the Jerusalem Brigade, under the command of Colonel Rami Tzur-Hacham. During previous IDF entries into the city, wanted persons found shelter in the Church of the Nativity. This time, a force from the Shaldag Unit was sent to block the entrance to the site.[1]
The troops were airlifted into the city and met disorganized Palestinian resistance. Israeli Air Force helicopters landed the force half an hour too late. When the force arrived, the wanted persons were already there. Dozens of militants, Fatah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Palestinian Security Forces men fled into the church to fortify, along with some 200 monks and other Palestinians who arrived at the site for different reasons, whom Israel claimed were held as hostages by the gunmen,[5] an argument denied by Giacomo BiniMinister General of the Order of Friars Minor, who stated:
I wish to firmly state that the Friars and Sisters of the religious community in Bethlehem cannot be considered as hostages. They have freely chosen to remain in that place, the custody of which has been entrusted to them by the Holy See, and which constitutes their home. The other 200 Palestinians besieged inside the Basilica have taken refuge there by force in order to flee from the sweep and search by the Israeli army, just as had happened to the 5 Italian journalists during the first day of the siege. Up to now they have not committed any act of violence or abuse of power against the religious community.[6]
"The idea was to enter the church in order to create international pressure on Israel....We knew beforehand that there was two years' worth of food for 50 monks. Oil, beans, rice, olives. Good bathrooms and the largest wells in old Bethlehem. You didn't need electricity because there were candles. In the yard they planted vegetables. Everything was there."[7]
Among the wanted persons in the church were the governor of Bethlehem, Muhammad al-Madani, and Abdullah Daoud, the Palestinian Authority intelligence chief in Bethlehem.[8]
Siege
Israeli soldiers evacuating priests during the siege
On 3 April, the IDF deployed tanks near Manger Square, opposite the church, and Israeli Army snipers took up positions on the surrounding buildings. They were instructed to fire at anyone spotted inside the church, searching out targets with laser beams. The Israeli government said it regarded the militants' use of holy sites as cynical and claimed that the militants had shot at the Israeli troops from the church. IDF spokesman, Brigadier General Ron Kitri, said: "It is complicated because it is a sacred place and we do not want to use live ammunition. There are several channels of negotiation to try to achieve as close to a peaceful solution as possible". Michel Sabbah, the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem and the head of the Roman Catholic Church in the region, said the gunmen had been given sanctuary, and that "the basilica is a place of refuge for everybody, even fighters, as long as they lay down their arms. We have an obligation to give refuge to Palestinians and Israelis alike".[9] The IDF placed its headquarters in a Palestinian convention center named the "Peace Center".[10]
The militants were divided into six groups, based on affiliation. They kept contact with the outside world using cellphones. They slept on the church floor and in the monks' rooms. The restrooms broke several times due to the disrupted water supply.[11] Throughout the siege, Israeli Army snipers killed seven fighters inside the church from their rooftop position. According to a witness, they used green laser beams to find targets during the night.[3]
On 4 April, Samir Ibrahim Salman the bellringer of the Church was shot several times in the chest by an Israeli sniper and died.[12][13] On 5 April 4 Franciscan monks left the church under Israeli escort. Israeli sources said they were told the clergy had been taken hostage, while sources in the Franciscan order maintained they were "voluntary hostages" intent on remaining in order to express solidarity with the Palestinians and to prevent bloodshed.[13]
On 7 April, Vatican City warned Israel to respect religious sites in line with its international obligations. Spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said that the Vatican was following events "with extreme apprehension". A spokesman for Catholic monks in the Holy Land accused the Israelis of "indescribable act of barbarity". The Vatican's top foreign policy expert Archbishop Jean-Louis Taura stated that while the Palestinians have joined the Vatican in bilateral agreements where they have undertaken to respect and maintain the status quo regarding Christian holy places and the rights of Christian communities, "to explain the gravity of the current situation, let me begin with the fact that the occupation of the holy places by armed men is a violation of a long tradition of law that dates back to the Ottoman era. Never before have they been occupied – for such a lengthy time – by armed men."[14]Pope John Paul II urged people to pray for peace in the Middle East and described the violence as having reached "unimaginable and intolerable" levels. Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, said the Israeli soldiers would not "defile the holiness of the site as the [Palestinians] have". He also said that the troops would remain in place until the militants inside were captured. British Foreign Office Minister, Ben Bradshaw described Israeli actions in the area as "totally unacceptable".[15]
On 8 April, a major gunbattle broke out, damaging the facade of the church and causing a fire. Both sides claimed the shooting had begun from the other side. The IDF claimed that the Palestinians had opened fire from a bell tower, wounding two Israel Border Police gendarmes in a nearby rooftop look-out. An IDF officer said the Israeli troops returned fire, and threw a smoke grenade, which started a blaze in a second-floor meeting hall overlooking the Basilica of St Catherine, adjacent to the Church of the Nativity. One Palestinian militant was killed.[16]
On 10 April, an Armenian monk was also wounded, having been shot, according to an Israeli spokesman, because he wore civilian clothes and seemed to be armed.[4][13]
On 11 April, the head of the Franciscan order, Giacomo Bini formally requested that the Palestinians be allowed to leave the church with a guarantee that their lives be protected, and that water and power be restored to the Church while the spokesman for the order reminded Israeli Jews of the role the Franciscan order had played in protecting Jews from the Holocaust by offering them sanctuary during WW2. The Vatican news agency Fides reported that these appeals were dismissed by the Israeli Government with the words: "Stop bothering us".[4]
On 14 April, Ariel Sharon gave the Palestinians the option of facing trial in Israel or permanent exile, a proposal they refused.[13] Another Palestinian was shot dead.
16 April saw the fiercest exchange of fire near the building since the beginning of the siege. One Palestinian was wounded in the stomach and another suffered from epilepsy. They were evacuated to a hospital.[17] Two Japanese tourists wandered into the church perimeters by mistake, and were rescued by journalists.[18] One sixteen-year-old Palestinian, Jihad Abu-Qamil, ran away from the church and gave himself up to the IDF.[19]
On 17 April, Israeli soldiers shot and wounded a Palestinian after he had left the church, and a priest who had fallen ill was evacuated.[13]
On 20 April, the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem called upon Christians worldwide to make the upcoming Sunday a "solidarity day" for the people in the church and the church itself, and called for immediate intervention to stop what it referred to as the "inhuman measures against the people and the stone of the church". It also asked Christians, Muslims and Jews to gather at the main entrance to Bethlehem and march to the church.[20]
On 23 April, negotiations to end the siege began in the Peace Center.[21] The negotiations were mediated by the Archbishop of Canterbury's representative in Bethlehem, Canon Andrew White.[22] The Israeli negotiator was IDF Colonel Lior Lotan, a lawyer by profession. At first, Yasser Arafat appointed Salah Tamari to head the negotiation team. Tamari rejected Israel's demands to hand over a list of the besieged militants, but then found out that Arafat had given Daoud a contradicting order. Arafat also appointed another negotiation team, headed by Mohammad Rashid.[23]
After two days of negotiations, the Palestinians were willing to discuss a possible deportation of the militants in the church to what a senior official called a "friendly foreign country".[24] Then an exchange of fire took place. Two Palestinians were wounded, and four surrendered to the IDF.[25] On 30 April, Israeli officials said that at least thirty people would soon exit the church. Israel said it wanted to try them within Israel, or alternatively exile them. The Palestinians demanded that those men be moved to the Gaza Strip and others passed under Palestinian Authority control for trial.[26]
On 1 May, twenty-six people came out of the church. IDF spokesman Olivier Rafowicz said one of them was a senior Palestinian security official. He was taken away for questioning.[27] On 2 May, ten international activists, including members of the International Solidarity Movement, were successful in their attempts to bypass soldiers and enter the church, where they announced they intended to remain until the IDF lifted the siege. The next day, another group of international activists delivered food and water, which were in short supply among those inside.[28] On 5 May, British and American diplomats arrived. It was suggested that about ten of the militants would be exiled to Jordan. Meanwhile, the IDF said it had found a large amount of explosives in an apartment about 200 meters from the church.[29] Between six and eight of the militants were to be exiled to Italy, while as many as forty others were to be sent to Gaza. The remaining were to be freed.[30] The agreement fell through on 8 May, after Italy refused to accept thirteen militants. The Italian government said it had received no formal request to take them.[31]
On 9 May it was agreed that twenty-six men militants were to go to the Gaza Strip, eighty-five civilians were to be checked by the IDF and then released and the thirteen most wanted, including Daoud, would remain in the church, monitored by a European Union official, until they could be transferred to British Army custody and moved to Italy and Spain, after those countries agreed in principle to accept them. Al-Madani was the first to walk out of the church.[32]
Catholic section of the Church of Nativity with marks of Israeli bullets in the upper left corner
On 10 May, the thirteen men left the church, and were taken to Ben Gurion International Airport in an armored bus, where a Royal Air Force transport plane awaited to take them to Cyprus. They were greeted by Sherard Cowper-Coles, the British Ambassador to Israel, thirty members of the Royal Military Police, and a Royal Air Force doctor.[33] They laid down their arms to the IDF behind a curtain, to avoid the photographers. They were denied permission to meet with their families before their exile.[10]
A total of 8 Palestinians had been killed, and an Armenian monk was also wounded.[3] Israeli riot police reported finding 40 explosive devices which had been left in the church by the Palestinians, several of them booby-trapped. In the parking lot beneath the Peace Center, Israeli soldiers had caused heavy damage to dozens of cars. Soldiers also vandalized Arafat's office in the presidential palace in the city.[10]
As for damage to the cultural heritage site, ICOMOS estimated the damage at a total of US$1.4 million, primarily grades 3 and 4, and loss in urban furniture. Direct damage to the church complex from projectiles and fire was estimated to total about US$77,000.[34]
See also
Captive, documentary series in which the hostage situation was featured.
Related Research Articles
Bethlehem is a city in the Israeli-occupied West Bank of the State of Palestine, located about ten kilometres south of Jerusalem. It is the capital of the Bethlehem Governorate, and has a population of approximately 25,000 people. The city's economy is largely tourist-driven; international tourism peaks around and during Christmas, when Christians embark on a pilgrimage to the Church of the Nativity, revered as the location of the Nativity of Jesus.
The Church of the Nativity, or Basilica of the Nativity, is a basilica located in Bethlehem, West Bank, Palestine. The grotto holds a prominent religious significance to Christians of various denominations as the birthplace of Jesus. The grotto is the oldest site continuously used as a place of worship in Christianity, and the basilica is the oldest major church in the Holy Land.
The Second Intifada, also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, was a major uprising by Palestinians against the Israeli occupation, characterized by a period of heightened violence in the Palestinian territories and Israel between 2000 and 2005. The general triggers for the unrest are speculated to have been centered on the failure of the 2000 Camp David Summit, which was expected to reach a final agreement on the Israeli–Palestinian peace process in July 2000. An uptick in violent incidents started in September 2000, after Israeli politician Ariel Sharon made a provocative visit to the Al-Aqsa compound, which is situated atop the Temple Mount in East Jerusalem; the visit itself was peaceful, but, as anticipated, sparked protests and riots that Israeli police put down with rubber bullets, live ammunition, and tear gas. Within the first few days of the uprising, the IDF had fired one million rounds of ammunition.
The International Solidarity Movement is a Palestinian-led movement focused on assisting the Palestinian cause in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. ISM is dedicated to the use of nonviolent protests and methods only. The organization calls on civilians from around the world to participate in acts of nonviolent protests against the Israeli military in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Operation Defensive Shield was a 2002 Israeli military operation in the West Bank, carried out amidst the Second Intifada. Lasting for just over a month, it was the largest combat operation in the West Bank since the 1967 Arab–Israeli War, when Israel seized the territory from Jordan. Israel's stated goal for the escalation was to stop Palestinian terrorist attacks; the operation was launched two days after the Passover massacre, in which a Palestinian suicide bomber attacked the Park Hotel in Netanya, killing 30 civilians while injuring 140 more.
The 2006 Gaza–Israel conflict, known in Israel as Operation Summer Rains, was a series of battles between Palestinian militants and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during summer 2006, prompted by the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by Palestinian militants on 25 June 2006. Large-scale conventional warfare occurred in the Gaza Strip, starting on 28 June 2006, which was the first major ground operation in the Gaza Strip since Israel's unilateral disengagement plan was implemented between August and September 2005.
Operation "Determined Path" was a military operation carried out by the Israel Defense Forces, starting June 22, 2002, following Operation "Defensive Shield", with the goal of reaching some of the unreached objectives set forth for Defensive Shield, especially in the northern West Bank.
Manger Square is a city square in the center of Bethlehem in Palestine. It takes its name from the manger where Jesus is said to have been born which, according to Christian tradition, took place at the Grotto of the Nativity, enshrined since the fourth century in the Church of the Nativity. A particular building set in Manger Square is the Mosque of Omar, the Old City's only mosque, and the Palestinian Peace Center. The streets that lead to the square are related to the Christian faith, such as Star Street and Nativity Street.
The Gaza–Israel conflict is a localized part of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict beginning in 1948, when 200,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes, settling in the Gaza Strip as refugees. Since then, Israel has fought 15 wars against the Gaza Strip. The number of Gazans killed in the most recent 2023 war — 27,000 — is higher than the death toll of all other wars of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The Battle of Nablus was fought from April 5 to April 8, 2002 in the Palestinian city of Nablus in the West Bank between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Palestinian forces, as part of Operation Defensive Shield in the Second Intifada. It resulted in an Israeli victory.
The Battle of Jenin, took place in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank on April 1–11, 2002. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) entered the camp, and other areas under the administration of the Palestinian Authority, during the Second Intifada, as part of Operation Defensive Shield. The Jenin camp was targeted after Israel reported that it had "served as a launch site for numerous terrorist attacks against both Israeli civilians and Israeli towns and villages in the area."
The Gaza War, also known as Operation Cast Lead, also known as the Gaza Massacre, and referred to as the Battle of al-Furqan by Hamas, was a three-week armed conflict between Gaza Strip Palestinian paramilitary groups and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that began on 27 December 2008 and ended on 18 January 2009 with a unilateral ceasefire. The conflict resulted in 1,166–1,417 Palestinian and 13 Israeli deaths. Over 46,000 homes were destroyed in Gaza, making more than 100,000 people homeless.
The al-Fakhura school incident was an Israeli military strike that took place during the Gaza War on 6 January 2009 near a United Nations-run school in the Jabalia Camp in the Gaza Strip. According to the UN and several non-governmental organizations (NGOs), more than 40 people were killed. Israel reported the death toll as nine Hamas militants and three noncombatants with senior IDF officers stating that the death toll published by Hamas was "grossly exaggerated". Israel stated it fired on the school in response to militant gunfire believed to be coming from al-Fakhura. A UN inquiry said that there was no firing from within the school and there were no explosives within the school, but could not establish if militants fired from the vicinity of the school.
The 2008 Israel–Hamas ceasefire was an Egyptian-brokered six-month Tahdia "for the Gaza area", which went into effect between Hamas and Israel on 19 June 2008. According to the Egyptian-brokered agreement, Israel promised to stop air strikes and other attacks, while in return, there would not be rocket attacks on Israel from Gaza. Once the ceasefire held, Israel was to gradually begin to ease its blockade of Gaza.
The Bat Ayin axe attack was an attack by a Palestinian man that took place on 2 April 2009 in the West Bank, when Moussa Tayet attacked a group of Israeli children with an axe and a knife, killing 13-year-old boy Shlomo Nativ and seriously wounding 7-year-old boy Yair Gamliel, in the Israeli settlement of Bat Ayin.
The August 2010 West Bank shooting attack was an attack near the Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, carried out by Hamas militants. Four Israeli settlers from the settlements of Beit Hagai and Efrat were killed after militants attacked their vehicle. It was the deadliest Palestinian attack on Israelis in over two years.
Events in the year 2002 in the Palestinian territories.
The 2006 Gaza cross-border raid was an armed incursion carried out by seven or eight Gazan Palestinian militants on 25 June 2006 who attacked Israel Defense Forces (IDF) positions near the Kerem Shalom Crossing through an attack tunnel. In the attack, two IDF soldiers and two Palestinian militants were killed, four IDF soldiers were wounded, one of whom was Gilad Shalit, who was captured and taken to the Gaza Strip.
A vast network of tunnels used for smuggling and warfare purposes exists under the Gaza Strip. The underground tunnel network allows Hamas and other militant groups to store and shield weapons, gather and move underground, communicate, train, launch offensive attacks, transport hostages, and retreat without being detected by Israeli or Egyptian authorities. This network of tunnels is colloquially referred to as the Gaza metro. According to Tehran IRGC General there are more than 500 kilometers of tunnels.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
Israel 
Fatah (Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Tanzim)
Palestinian Security Forces 
Hamas 
