Heavy gunfire erupted Monday evening around Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, where Israeli soldiers are locked in a 20-day-old standoff with Palestinians holed up inside, witnesses said.
A Palestinian policeman inside the compound told Reuters by telephone that there was shooting all around the church but no one was hurt. A Palestinian source in contact with people in the church said he was told gunmen inside fired on soldiers after the Israelis shot at them. "We tried to tell them not to shoot but they shot anyway," the source said.
The heavy gunfire lasted about half an hour before giving way to sporadic shooting. A small fire broke out to the left of the church complex, but apparently not beside the church itself, witnesses said.
According to Reuters, signs of division emerged among the people trapped in the church. A conversation overheard via a mobile telephone left open in the church following an earlier call appeared to reveal a sharp debate between a gunman and a Palestinian official.
"If you want to fire, go outside. Don't fire from inside the church," said the official in the church. "We are not going to surrender. You have to tell the people to stand with us" was the reply. "You have got to have a conscience," the official responded.
Israel has pledged not to storm the shrine, but the two sides have regularly exchanged fire at the site.
Meanwhile, the meeting between a U.S. envoy and Palestinian leader seemed to make little progress in talks on the crisis.
"I would not say that it was a positive meeting," Mohammed Rashid, an adviser to Arafat, told Reuters after the 90-minute session with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns at the Palestinian president's encircled compound in Ramallah.
Rashid complained that Israeli troops had prevented senior Palestinians from attending.
Another Arafat aide, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, said the Palestinian leader had demanded an unconditional Israeli pullout from all the areas occupied by troops in a West Bank offensive launched on March 29. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
