PALESTINIAN leaders have agreed to exile 13 militants holed up in the Church of the Nativity, a Palestinian official said early on Tuesday, but approval of each of the 13 was needed.
Two Palestinian officials entered the church to talk to the gunmen inside, the official, a Palestinian policeman in the church, told The Associated Press.
The Israeli military had no immediate comment. About 200 people fled into the church, which marks the birthplace of Jesus, ahead of invading Israeli forces on April 2.
Among them were about 30 gunmen wanted by Israel. The Israelis encircled the church, one of Christianity’s holiest sites, with tanks and armoured vehicles, setting off a tense crisis that eventually drew the United States, European Union and Vatican into efforts to resolve it.
Under terms of the deal to solve the 35-day standoff at the church, the official said, the 13 would be sent first to Egypt and then to Italy, and another 26 militants would be transported to the Gaza Strip.
The outline of the deal was put together in intensive negotiations over the past few days, when Israel dropped its demand for the surrender or exile of all the gunmen in the church, and the Palestinians agreed to exile some of them. Over the past day, the haggling has been over the number to be exiled.
Ribhi Arafat and Farouk Amin, two Palestinian officials connected to the District Coordination Office, a liaison office with the Israeli military, went into the church before daybreak Tuesday to talk to the 13, the official said. He said the Palestinian leadership had approved the deal in principle, but each of the 13 had to agree to it.
Before, the Palestinians were willing to allow exile for up to eight men from the church, while Israel insisted on 13, a Palestinian official said.
The tense Bethlehem standoff is the last vestige of Israel’s large-scale incursion into the West Bank that began March 29, a response to a series of bloody Palestinian suicide bomb attacks. On Wednesday, Israel lifted a siege on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s office, accepting a deal under US pressure. There, too, Israel dropped its demand for the surrender of militants. Allowing them to be transported to a Palestinian prison under US and British supervision. – Sapa-AP