topic by
define_terror
4/4/2002 (14:05) |
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http://www.msnbc.com/news/733970.asp?0dm=C13QN
In Bethlehem, grim reality sets in
With ambulances barred, signs of carnage abound
By Keith B. Richburg
THE WASHINGTON POST
BETHLEHEM, West Bank, April 3 — Demolished cars lined the narrow streets of Bethlehem. Shutters were ripped from the shops. And inside the homes, where frightened residents huddled for a second day, the dead shared space with the wounded. In one small house, a woman named Fatheyeh Mousa wailed for help to get a dead man’s body removed from her kitchen. She did not know the man.
‘It’s unimaginable. Even in the worst of wars, the Red Cross was always allowed to come and help people.’
— THE REV. MAROUN LAHHAM
Rector, Latin Patriarchate Seminary HE WAS NAMED Abdel Khader Abu Ahmad, he told her, and came from a Palestinian refugee camp in neighboring Jordan. But he was wounded during the early hours of the Israeli invasion Tuesday morning and the family took him in. With no ambulances allowed on the streets, he died on a thin mat on her kitchen floor.
“He kept bleeding. We tried to find any kind of medicine to help him, but he had a hole in his waist,” the woman cried as a child of about 4 stood transfixed by the feet of the corpse. “We didn’t know who he was, but we feel like he was family already. I feel like I lost a member of my family.”
Nearby, in a small mosque, the body of another man, apparently a fighter, lay partially covered under a green coat and a striped blanket. The man had been wounded and, judging from the bloodstained bandages over his right arm, someone had tried to give him first aid.
These were some of the sights of Bethlehem two days after Israeli armored forces-moving from the north on the road from Jerusalem and from the south passing the Deheishe refugee camp-took control of the city and spread out around the churches and shrines erected to mark its role as the place where Christian tradition says Jesus was born.
Initial resistance by Palestinian gunmen armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades had largely died away. But Israeli troops stood at Manger Square and faced the Church of the Nativity. About 200 Palestinian fighters who had retreated into the church were surrounded by a ring of Israeli armor and troops in a dangerous standoff.
Father Parthenius, a Canadian Greek Orthodox priest inside, said the Palestinian militiamen were frightened but respectful of the church and the clergy. He said some of the fighters are Christians and join in the Masses held there each day. Several wounded militiamen, mostly with light injuries, were treated at the church, he said.
‘WE DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY WANT’
The Church of the Nativity is shared by the Greek Orthodox Church, which has the large basilica in the center, the Armenian Church, with a small corner, and the Roman Catholic Church. The fighters were mainly in the Orthodox and Catholic parts, sleeping in the large basilica, the priest said. The biggest problem was lack of food; he said they were surviving on coffee, tea and biscuits.
“They’re carrying their own weapons,” the priest said. “But I think they are out of ammunition.”
He said the militiamen never tried to fire from the church, which would be difficult because the structure has no windows. Negotiations were underway to end the standoff. But the priest said he was unsure what the resolution might be. He said the fighters had outlined no specific conditions or demands that would persuade them to leave.
“To tell you the truth, we don’t know what they want,” he said. “I will never ask them to leave. It’s up to them.”
Another standoff at a nearby Bethlehem convent, Santa Maria, ended today when the Israeli army entered the compound to escort out the priest and five nuns who the army said had been held hostage inside. “The terrorists used the church as a strong point,” an Israeli army statement said, adding that the gunmen inside “escaped through the back door.”
Asked how Palestinian gunmen could escape from a church that was surrounded, a military spokesman said negotiations were involved and that the army is aware of the sensitivity of taking military action around a church or a place of worship. The army said the gunmen left behind the body of one of their colleagues, clothed in combat fatigues, who had been shot in the head.
The Rev. Maroun Lahham, rector of the Latin Patriarchate Seminary, said church policy is to allow anyone to seek shelter in church buildings who comes out of genuine fear. “Those who took refuge in the churches just came as people who were afraid,” he said. “We don’t allow them to shoot from churches, and they don’t.”
A Palestinian building, right, burns after the Israeli army shelled it Tuesday. At left is one of the towers of the Church of the Nativity.
UNIVERSITY TAKEN OVER
The Israeli army also took over a religious facility, the four-acre campus of Bethlehem University, run by the Brothers of the Christian School. Brother Neil Kieffe of St. Joseph, Mo., who was on the campus when the troops came early Tuesday, said soldiers climbed over the walls and broke through the front gate.
“Our campus has been occupied by the Israeli military and they are using this as one of the centers from which they are sending out their troops,” he said in a telephone interview. “We asked them to leave the campus. We said this was Vatican property.”
Kieffe said the soldiers ignored the requests, searched all the rooms and at one point began using spray paint to mark the rooms already searched until an officer stopped them. He said the extent of damage will not be known until the troops depart and the priests can inspect the six buildings on the grounds. At one point, one of the brothers ventured outside and was forced back when an Israeli soldier shouted and fired at him with an automatic weapon, Kieffe said.
Under a 24-hour curfew, the entire city was declared a closed military area, meaning journalists and other foreigners were blocked from entering by the main roads. Some reporters ventured inside using back roads, however, and got a glimpse of the damage and casualties.
AMBULANCES BARRED
‘I will never ask them to leave. It’s up to them.’
— FATHER PARTHENIUS
Canadian Greek Orthodox priest inside Church of the Nativity The Israeli military’s refusal to allow ambulances to collect the dead and wounded drew cries of outrage from Bethlehem’s residents, as well as from medical workers and clergy. One ambulance was allowed out for about half an hour this afternoon, under an agreement negotiated between the Israeli military and the Red Crescent Society. The driver, Jamal Balboul, picked up three bodies and two wounded people. He stacked the dead in first and put the two injured people on top.
“It’s unimaginable,” said Lahham of the Latin Seminary. “Even in the worst of wars, the Red Cross was always allowed to come and help people.”
Lahham said many people around the world are concerned about the fate of the Church of the Nativity, worried that one of Christianity’s most sacred shrines might be damaged in the standoff between Palestinian fighters inside and Israeli soldiers at the door. But Lahham said he is more concerned about the injured who were prevented from getting medical attention.
“For me, the dignity of human beings is even more important,” he said. “People are bleeding to death. This is more important than the Basilica of the Nativity.”
Peter Qumri, director of the hospital in nearby Beit Jala, said he believed about nine people were killed during the initial Israeli assault in Bethlehem and that five others died today. He said it is impossible to get an accurate count of the wounded while the city remains under curfew.
A spokesman for the Israeli army said its policy is to restrict movement of ambulances around Manger Square and the approaching roads because of sniper fire. “But as soon as they can go, they go,” he said.
The spokesman also said Palestinian ambulances were being stopped and checked because in the past they have been discovered to be ferrying weapons. Before the Passover holiday, he said, an ambulance carrying a 3-year-old boy was stopped and soldiers discovered a belt of explosives hidden under the stretcher.
The streets showed the destruction caused by the Israeli push into the city. Dozens of cars were smashed along Farahieh Street, one of the main roads leading into the Old City, apparently crushed by tanks as they wound their way through the narrow passageways.
The turquoise shutters across many of the shops had been ripped away, as soldiers were apparently searching for weapons or gunmen. Those shutters had only recently been added as part of an internationally funded effort to spruce up the city for millennium celebrations.
The normally bustling Pope Paul VI Street was deserted and littered with debris. The only noise was the mournful wail of a burglar alarm at a pharmacy. At several points, water rushed onto the street from burst water pipes.
© 2002 The Washington Post Company
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