Gunfire at besieged church as army steps up pressure

Internal links

Amnesty demands war crimes inquiry into Jenin invasion

Saddam urges Arabs to cut oil exports

Arabs 'storm out' of EU meeting

Smoke, gunfire and the thud of sound grenades engulfed the area around the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem yesterday, prompting speculation that the three-week siege was heading towards a close.

Witnesses said the skirmishing included an exchange of fire between the Israeli army, which has tanks and snipers stationed around the basilica, and armed Palestinians inside the shrine.

It came on the eve of talks between the Israeli army and a team of Palestinian negotiators who were given approval by Yasser Arafat yesterday to deal directly with the Israelis without third- party involvement, including church leaders.

Only hours before the outbreak of gunfire, 17 journalists, foreign and Palestinian, had their Israeli government press credentials seized by an Israeli army officer close to Manger Square, site of the ancient church.

Several of the more than 200 Palestinians inside the church, who include a group of militants wanted by Israel, said Israeli soldiers had placed ladders against the walls of the compound. On past occasions, the army has done this to bombard the church with leaflets, demanding surrender. On Sunday, five of the besieged Palestinians used the ladders to leave, and give themselves up to the waiting soldiers.

Canon Andrew White, the Archbishop of Canterbury's envoy, said conditions inside the church were deteriorating. "There is no food, the sanitary conditions are terrible and some of the people are sick or wounded," he said. There are known to be two corpses inside, both Palestinians.

The Franciscan Order, which has three dozen monks and nuns inside the building, has expressed dismay over the Israeli army's decision to cut telephone lines connecting the church with an adjacent compound. At a meeting with the Israeli ambassador to the Holy See, the Order said there was "grave danger in losing all contact ... with the friars and nuns who are living under dramatic physical and psychological conditions".