26 Walk Out of Shrine in Bethlehem

More than two dozen Palestinians emerged Tuesday from the Church of the Nativity, the biggest group to leave since a standoff at the besieged shrine began a month ago.

The Israeli army called the departure a “positive point,” while Palestinians downplayed its importance, saying that talks to end the siege remained suspended.

The release was the result of low-level negotiations that were not aimed at finding a final resolution to the crisis at the Bethlehem site, which is considered by Christians to be the birthplace of Jesus.

“We are still deadlocked,” said Bethlehem Mayor Hanna Nasser, a member of the Palestinian negotiating team.

The departure came as Israeli forces gradually pulled out of the West Bank city of Hebron, amid claims by Palestinian witnesses that at least six of the nine people killed during the two-day incursion were civilians without ties to militant groups. Among the injured was a Hebron physician, Dr. Ibrahim Salaymeh, who was hit by shrapnel while aiding the wounded.

Israeli officials contacted late Tuesday said every effort was made during the Hebron operation to spare civilians, although they added that they did not yet have specific information concerning the identities of those killed or injured.

“We’re not aware of any mistakes,” said Israeli government spokesman Daniel Seaman. “It was not civilians who were targeted. Civilians may have been killed, but we’re not aware of any.”

In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Israeli tanks continued to ring the headquarters of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, and he remained confined there, as negotiators sorted through the details of implementing a U.S.-brokered plan to end that standoff.

Under terms of the deal, six wanted Palestinians sheltered at the compound will be transferred to a prison near the West Bank town of Jericho, where they will be guarded by U.S. and British civilian wardens. In exchange, Israel will lift the siege on Arafat’s battered offices, where he has been confined since March 29. Israel has restricted his movements to Ramallah since December.

But even as U.S. and British security experts toured the Jericho facility, negotiators reported a new dispute Tuesday over whether all six of the wanted men were included in the agreement. Palestinians insisted that the accord applied to only four of the men. Talks were to continue on the matter today, but the dispute was not considered likely to scuttle the deal.

Men Ignore Offers

of Food and Drink

In Bethlehem, 26 Palestinians left the church about 4 p.m. through the low front door of the fortress-like basilica. They ignored the Israeli military’s offer of food and drink waiting outside, then boarded an armored bus to be taken for further questioning. One man was carried on a stretcher.

The men had been trapped at the site since April 2, when the Israeli army invaded Bethlehem in search of Palestinian gunmen. Their departure leaves about 150 Palestinians still inside the church, including at least 10 suspected by Israel of attacks against its citizens.

About 40 clerics and church workers from the three Christian denominations that share the shrine--the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Orthodox faiths--also are inside.

The Israeli army said that about half of the Palestinians inside were civilians and half members of various security forces.

One of the men released Tuesday, Police Lt. Col. Hassan Shehadeh, said conditions inside the church were desperate. People have been eating leaves from lemon trees and many are unable to stand, he said.

Shehadeh, the most senior official to come out of the church since the crisis began, was being treated for dehydration at a hospital late Tuesday. He appeared worn, his voice hoarse.

“Everybody wants to get out, even the men who are wanted,” Shehadeh said. “But they are afraid they will be shot.”

Israeli snipers have shot and killed at least five men since the standoff began. They have said that in four cases the men were armed. They also acknowledged the accidental shooting of a mentally disabled man.

The issue of the fate of the wanted men remains the primary sticking point in the negotiations to end the Bethlehem siege.

On Tuesday, the Vatican announced plans to send Cardinal Roger Etchegaray to Jerusalem today to help in the negotiations, according to the Vatican missionary news service, Fides.

The Israelis insist that the wanted men be tried or exiled. The Palestinians say the men should face justice in Palestinian courts.

The Palestinians have suggested that a third party could monitor the trial, as well as the imprisonment of any of the men convicted, a solution similar to the one being pursued to end the Ramallah siege. Israel has not commented on this.

In Hebron, Israeli commanders said just before midnight Tuesday that the army had completed its gradual withdrawal from the city.

But late Tuesday afternoon, a curfew remained in effect as soldiers continued to search house to house for militants and weapons. Tanks and armored personnel carriers dominated several major intersections and blocked access to Al Ahli hospital where, Israel said, several wanted men had taken refuge. The hospital’s chief anesthesiologist, Dr. Mazen Arafah, said that it sheltered “only wounded, not wanted.”

Most streets in Hebron were deserted, but here and there knots of residents gathered in doorways or on balconies to survey damaged buildings, smashed cars and downed electrical wires. The damage appeared relatively light, however, compared with that resulting from the Israeli army’s recent moves into other Palestinian cities. An army spokesman said 150 men, including 52 wanted militants, were detained and interrogated during the Hebron incursion. Among those arrested Tuesday was a senior local leader of the Tanzim, the armed wing of Arafat’s Fatah movement.

Hebron Resident Says

6 Civilians Were Killed

At a heavily damaged house on the southwestern outskirts of the city, several Palestinians accused the army of killing mainly civilians, not militants, during its incursion.

Hatem Shaheen, whose home was hit by an Israeli helicopter strike in the early hours of the Hebron assault, said that six of the seven people killed in and around the building were civilians.

Shaheen, 30, who owns a tourist shop and glass factory, said he didn’t know the seventh victim, one of three wounded men who collapsed on his doorstep appealing for help. Shaheen said he assumed that the three were wanted men--their car appeared to have been hit by a missile--but he added that he felt obliged to help them.

He tried to do so himself, then called several nearby relatives and friends, including Dr. Salaymeh, to his home, he said. Moments later, the house was hit by two rockets, which destroyed the entryway and sent shrapnel flying through the living room.

Five people were killed in the house or the entryway, the others a short distance away, he said.

Capt. Joel Leyden, an Israeli army spokesman, said he could not respond to Shaheen’s claims but said the army “goes to the greatest efforts to distinguish between the civilian population and terrorist targets.”

Miller reported from Bethlehem and Trounson from Hebron. Times staff writer Richard Boudreaux in Rome contributed to this report.