VATICAN CITY, April 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The Vatican issued a stern warning to Israel to respect religious sites in line with its international obligations and demanded an explanation from Israel as fighting continued around Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity.

Spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said Monday, April 8, the Vatican was following events "with extreme apprehension" and trying to establish the truth about the fighting that flared early on Monday, BBC’s online service reported.

Fighting flared Monday around the besieged church, leaving one Palestinian dead, two Israelis wounded and a building ablaze next to one of Christianity's holiest sites.

The Vatican foreign ministry has "contacted Israeli authorities to reaffirm that the Holy See considers the respect for the integrity of holy sites as an absolute priority," he added.

A spokesman for Catholic monks in the Holy Land said earlier that Israeli occupation soldiers were guilty of an "indescribable act of barbarity".

Israel had broken its international obligations and risked "long-term and incalculable" consequences, Father David Jaeger said.

Speaking from Rome, he said monks at the church had reported damage to "sacred spaces" and evidence that Israeli occupation troops had entered the church.

The Secretary for Relations with States Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran and the Apostolic Nuncio in Israel, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, have been in contact with the authorities of Israel to re-affirm that the Holy See considers respect for the status quo of the Holy Places a priority, Vatican’s official news agency Fides reported.

All the more since at this moment there are about two hundred men – some armed – inside the Nativity Church, an unprecedented event in the centuries old history of Christian Holy Places.

It should also be remembered that both the fundamental Agreement between the Holy See and the State of Israel signed in 1993 and the Basic Agreement reached with the Palestinian Authorities in 2000 include articles which sanction respect for the status quo of the Holy Places, Fides said.

The Church of the Nativity is one of the holiest sites in Christianity and is considered by Christian churches to be the birthplace of Jesus.

Pope John Paul II meanwhile condemned the "intolerable level" of violence in the Middle East, during a papal audience with a U.S. group raising money for the Vatican coffers.

“The spiral of violence and the armed clashes in the land where the savior was born, died and rose again, a holy land of three major monotheistic religions, has reached intolerable and unimaginable levels," the pope said.