JERUSALEM, April 5 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Besieged priests accused Israeli forces Thursday, April 4, of attempting to storm the shrine believed to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, news agencies reported.

Priests and Palestinian resistance activists, who have taken sanctuary inside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, said Israeli soldiers blew off a door at the back of the church and fired shots into the building, wounding three people inside, the British daily newspaper, the Independent, reported Friday, April 5.

The Israeli army denied it had attacked the building. Reporters trying to reach the church to verify the claim were ordered back by Israeli soldiers waving guns in their faces.

About 200 Palestinians have taken refuge in the church, after Israeli forces occupied Bethlehem. Israeli soldiers have surrounded the building.

Along with the besieged Palestinians are about 40 Franciscan monks, four nuns, and Father Ibrahim Faltas, the custodian of the church.

Some of the trapped said Israeli troops had fired on the building, blowing off a metal door that leads to a small courtyard at the back of the church. It wasn’t the Palestinians alone; Father Ibrahim corroborated the accusation in an interview with Italian radio.

"After they [Israeli soldiers] smashed down the door, the Palestinians who were in the church fled to the convent area," the Independent quoted Father Ibrahim as saying.

Father Ibrahim issued a plea for help for those trapped inside. He said: "We are in danger, we ask for an immediate intervention of the international community. The world must help us."

Father Ibrahim said some of the Palestinian men were critically wounded and being tended to by the nuns, but food and water supplies inside the church were running out. He said negotiations were under way.

"Among the Palestinians there are at least a dozen injured, two of whom lie in critical conditions," he said. "The nuns are taking care of them but there is nothing left: bread, food, water."

Bethlehem Mayor Hanna Nasser said Thursday that Vatican representatives were working to bring an end to a three-day-old Israeli offensive against the Church of the Nativity, where Palestinian civilians are holed up with the clergy inside. Nasser said he had spoken with a top Vatican official from Jerusalem who is trying to negotiate a surrender.

Israeli troops and tanks have surrounded the church since Monday, April 1, claiming that armed fighters were inside and allegedly holding hostages. City officials and church officials have said no one is being held hostage, according to CNN.

Meanwhile, Israeli occupation soldiers and tanks continued Friday, April 5, to take over more West Bank towns despite a unanimous Security Council vote demanding an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian West Bank towns “without delay”.

Seven Palestinians, six of them resistance activists and one an unarmed civilian, were killed Friday in pre-dawn clashes with the Israeli occupation army in Nablus, Palestinian hospital sources said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Israeli forces have met stiff resistance in the city, one of the last major targets in the army's bloody offensive across the West Bank to crush the 18-month-old Palestinian Intifada or uprising against Israeli occupation.

The civilian, Yasser Elkani, 45, died after being hit by an Israeli bullet inside his home in the Old City of Nablus, the biggest town on the West Bank currently encircled and partly overrun by Israeli forces.
   

Three Palestinian resistance activists, Rame Darwazi and Nasser Abu Harmeh, both aged 22, and Soleiman Tahshuh, were killed in a firefight with Israeli troops, also in the Old City.

The remaining three, named as Samir Abuleil, Maher Amiri and Raed Hadjeh, died when they were hit by an Israeli rocket fired from an Israeli helicopter in the Balata refugee camp on the outskirts of Nablus, AFP said.

Correspondents said Israeli forces controlled most of the town except for pockets of resistance in the Old City, while the three refugee camps were still holding out.
   

Since the beginning of the Intifada in September 2000, at least 1,712 people have died, among them 1,263 Palestinians and 416 Israelis.
   

The toll, however, may be higher, said AFP, as Israeli forces have sealed off areas in which fighting took place in the last few days.
   

Four Palestinians were killed Thursday in Nablus, including a 54-year-old woman who died in her home after a large blast shook the Old City.
      
Israeli forces have so far invaded the towns of Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarem, Qalqilya, Ramallah, and Bethlehem -- as well as a number of Palestinian-controlled villages. Jericho is the last major West Bank town still under Palestinian control.

In Bethlehem, the largest city in the West Bank, Israeli troops have control of most areas of Nablus, but have not been able to enter three refugee camps -- Balata, Askar, and Ein -- or the old city area, security sources said.