Youths tell of desperate days in Bethlehem shrine

BETHLEHEM, West Bank -- During the first chilly nights Abed Abu Surour spent inside the Church of the Nativity, he huddled with 30 young men in the tiny stone grotto revered as the spot where Jesus was born.

And on his final full day at the church, the hungry 16-year-old Muslim slipped into a church garden to pick green beans, only to be chased off by Israeli army fire.

As Abu Surour and other youths recounted their three weeks inside the shrine, Israeli and Palestinian negotiators remained deadlocked on the fate of about 30 gunmen among more than 200 Palestinians still holed up inside.

After three days of negotiations at the Bethlehem Peace Center, a building next to the church, no discussions were held Friday as a Palestinian negotiator prepared to consult with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Abu Surour, a lively, talkative kid, was among nine youths to emerge from the church on Thursday. On April 2, the day the standoff began, he was heading to Bethlehem's market to meet friends when Israeli troops began battling Palestinian gunmen, forcing him to seek cover.

He followed others through the 5-foot-high doorway into the church, one of the holiest sites in Christendom. The Palestinians, almost all of them Muslims, believed the church was the safest place from Israeli fire.

Israel says that it is interested only in the gunmen and that the others inside are free to come out at any time. But while some Palestinians have trickled out, most have stayed.

Most priests and monks, totaling about 40, have said they want to stay to protect the church. Several nuns -- the only women in the church -- have also remained. One is a nurse who has treated wounded Palestinians.

Four Palestinian police emerged Friday. However, more than 100 police are still inside, along with about 50 civilians.

After the nine youths emerged Thursday -- the largest single group to come out so far -- the Israelis interrogated them about the gunmen.

"We told them we don't know all the people inside," said Mohammed Najar, 16. "The situation is extremely difficult. There isn't food, there isn't medicine, and there isn't enough water."

Conditions were rough from the first night.

As the group looked for a place to sleep in the cold, cavernous church, they opted for the warmest spot they could find -- the small cave believed to be the site of Jesus' birth, located down a series of steps from the basilica.

Up to 30 people, most of them youths, gathered there the first few nights, later moving upstairs to the basilica, where they conducted Muslim prayers, Abu Surour said.

In the long days filled with boredom and punctuated with occasional bursts of gunfire, the darkest moments came when two Palestinian police were shot and killed.

The Palestinians built makeshift wooden coffins for the two bodies and placed them in St. Catherine's Church in another part of the compound. The decaying corpses remained there for more than 10 days until Abu Surour and eight other youths carried them out Thursday.

The standoff has brought criticism of both sides. The gunmen have been denounced for charging into the holy site, firing their automatic weapons wildly at the pursuing Israeli troops as they entered.

The Israelis have come under criticism for firing on the compound several times. Lt. Col. Olivier Rafowicz said the army's goal is to resolve the standoff peacefully, to release the people inside and arrest those who are wanted without harming the church.

As the standoff has dragged on, conditions have grown increasingly desperate. Abu Surour said that like most, he wore the same clothes throughout, and couldn't wash, aside from splashing water on his face.

Food, which came from the monks' cupboards, was rationed from the beginning. Palestinians and the priests have been eating one meal a day, rice or spaghetti.

"You didn't waste anything," said Abu Surour. "If you dropped a grain of rice, you picked it up."

The youths were so hungry on Wednesday, the day before they came out, that they ventured into a church garden and began snapping up green beans. But they quickly came under Israeli fire, driving them back inside.

In other developments Friday:

Israeli troops entered the West Bank town of Qalqilya, killing a militia leader in a firefight. Israel's defense minister said there would be more raids whenever his forces had leads on the whereabouts of suspected militants.

President Bush voiced exasperation with the Israeli offensive but said U.S. support for the Jewish state is unequivocal. "We will not allow Israel to be crushed."

The arrival of a U.N. team to investigate Israel's military assault on the Jenin refugee camp was delayed by a day, to Sunday.

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