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Israelis
Destroy Bethlehem Church Door
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| Israeli
occupation army soldiers outside the Nativity church,
Bethlehem |
BETHLEHEM,
April 4 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – As explosions and
gunfire erupted Thursday around Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity,
Israeli occupation forces destroyed the door of the church where about
240 Palestinians are under siege, witnesses said, news agencies
reported.
Palestinian
sources inside Bethlehem’s Nativity church said Thursday the Israeli
army blew an iron door off a back wall leading to the gardens of the
church regarded as marking the birthplace of Jesus. Two more blasts
were heard shortly afterwards.
One
of the priests trapped in the complex confirmed Thursday that Israeli
occupation troops destroyed the door into Bethlehem's Church of the
Nativity and shot at Palestinians holed up in the building.
"The
situation is very serious. The Jews knocked down the door of the
Nativity church where all the Palestinians were," Father Ibrahim
Faltas, custodian of the Bethlehem church, said in a telephone
interview with the Italian RAI television news.
"The
Palestinians are now in the Convent. We are in danger. Try to save
us," he said.
Some
240 Palestinians took refuge in the church early Tuesday to avoid
attacks by Israeli occupation troops who surrounded the building.
Around 40 monks and nuns are also in the religious complex.
But
the Israeli occupation government denied attacking the church.
Occupants
of the church, however, denied Israeli claims that some Palestinians
among them were beginning to surrender one by one.
"No
one has left the church," lawyer Tony Salman said, while
Bethlehem district governor Mohamed al Madani added: "It is
totally untrue."
However,
Salman said that the people in the church were beginning to run out of
food, and were using the stocks from the next door convent.
Salman
said that those in the church included some 15 women, elderly people
and several dozen clerics.
Meanwhile,
France Thursday expressed concern over reports that the Israeli
occupation army tightened its siege on the Church of the Nativity in
Bethlehem.
"The
news coming from Bethlehem gives cause for dismay," French
Foreign Ministry spokesman Francois Rivasseau said, calling on Israel
to respect sites of worship.
"What
is happening hurts the conscience of the world," he added.
Pope
John Paul II called on Roman Catholics to observe a world day of
prayer for peace in the Middle East "at such a serious moment for
all humanity," the Vatican announced Thursday.
The
Vatican's top official, Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano,
relayed the Pope's message to bishops around the world, asking them to
dedicate next Sunday to the day of prayer.
"The
dramatic situation in the Holy Land leads me to address a new pressing
appeal to the Church, so that all the faithful can intensify their
prayers for the people who are being torn apart by unprecedented
violence," wrote the pope.
God
alone, the pope wrote, "can change the heart of men, even the
most obstinate."
The
pontiff, who visited the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in 2000,
said Christians were becoming increasingly concerned about the
birthplace of Jesus and other holy places, engulfed in the latest
Israeli violence.
The
Church of the Nativity and other holy places in
Palestinian-administered Bethlehem has been surrounded by Israeli
occupation forces laying siege to Palestinians inside.
In
his article “The Bloody Battle Of Bethlehem” published Thursday,
Robert Fisk wrote in the Independent that “If the Church of the
Nativity is now a battleground, what is sacred any longer?”
“Israel's
latest war is turning into a human and political tragedy on a vast
scale,” he added.
“The
world's last colonial war – between a settlement-planting nation and
an occupied people – was entering its gravest phase,” Fisk warned.
“There
is life after war. But will there be a Palestine? Will the world,
through this Israeli reoccupation, see Palestine as it saw Bosnia or
Kosovo or East Timor?” the prominent writer questioned. 
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