The execution of a deal to end Israel's siege of Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity was delayed Tuesday because no country has been found to accept the Palestinian fighters inside, an Israeli army spokesman said.
A deal was reached on Tuesday to end a month-long standoff between the Israeli army and Palestinian fighters holed up inside Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, Palestinian sources said.
Under the deal reached Tuesday morning, it was agreed U.S. officials would escort 13 of the Palestinians inside the church to Egypt and then to Italy. The other 26 would go to the Gaza Strip.
But Italy said it could not consider taking the Palestinians for the time being, complaining that it had been kept in the dark about a deal.
"The possibility of receiving Palestinian citizens in Italy has never been raised (officially) and therefore at the current state of affairs it cannot be considered," an Italian Foreign Ministry statement said.
Earlier it was reported that Palestinian security officials, including Ribhi Arafat and Farouk Amin, two Palestinian officials connected to the District Coordination Office, were inside the church trying to finalize details of the deal and gather weapons from the fighters.
One leading Palestinian fighter told Reuters by telephone from inside the church that he and 12 others had agreed to go to Italy while 26 would go to Gaza. He said he believed his group would leave the church first.
Ten of the candidates for deportation are activists in Fatah, and three are Hamas members. Of the Fatah members, four are officers in the Palestinian general intelligence service, Israel Radio added.
The Israeli military gave The Associated Press a list of 10 top wanted men inside the church. Among them were several members of the Abayat clan, including Ibrahim Abayat, 29, accused of killing three Israelis, and Mohammed Salem, a 23-year-old accused of organizing two suicide attacks that killed several Israelis in March.
"I object to my brother being exiled," said Ibrahim Abayat's sister, Iman Abayat. "At least I want to see him leaving the church before he is sent away from his homeland."
Hamas
Meanwhile, the deal to lift Israel's siege of the Nativity Church has been rejected by Hamas as a "major catastrophe".
A top official of the group, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, was quoted by Qatar's Al-Jazeera television as saying, "This agreement is extremely serious; it is a major catastrophe... The Hamas movement categorically rejects this."
He added, "The Israeli enemy is depriving us of our legitimacy, of the legitimacy of our presence in Palestine."
He also accused Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority of "waging a war against the (Palestinian) resistance," including Hamas.(Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
