Talks Create Cautious Hope for End to Bethlehem Siege

A monthlong standoff between the Israeli army and Palestinians holed up inside this city’s venerated Church of the Nativity appeared to be nearing an end early today, with negotiators expressing cautious hope that the crisis might soon be resolved.

A top aide to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat met Saturday with Israeli and U.S. officials for intensive talks aimed at breaking the siege, which began April 2. More than 200 Palestinians took shelter in the church when Israeli troops entered Bethlehem as part of their West Bank offensive.

More than 150 people, including civilians, police and gunmen, are believed to remain inside, encircled by the army. The Israelis demand that a number of wanted men in the church surrender to face trial in Israel or go into exile. The Palestinians have insisted that the men be sent to the Gaza Strip.

After 34 days, the situation inside the church has become increasingly difficult, with food and medicine running low.

On Saturday, each person was given a small amount of thin rice soup, and several men fought over the scorched bits of rice clinging to the bottom of the pot. Supplies brought in by activists who entered the church Thursday were nearly gone.

The first news of a possible deal was greeted early Saturday with relief and hope inside the 4th century basilica. People began to organize their belongings and took turns washing themselves and cleaning their clothes at spigots in the sprawling compound.

At dusk Saturday, Israeli soldiers near the church appeared to be preparing to lift the siege. They were setting up powerful overhead lights and moving the barbed-wire and other barricades that for more than a month have blocked access to the shrine and adjoining Manger Square.

Palestinians speaking by telephone from inside the church said they had compiled a list of about 130 names of those holed up there and turned it over to a European envoy to convey to Palestinian negotiators. The tally was not believed to include a number of priests, monks and nuns who have remained in the church throughout the siege, or a group of activists who eluded Israeli troops Thursday and raced in through its low wooden door.

Early today, however, Palestinians, Israelis and others close to the negotiations said that although an agreement appeared to be in the works, many details were unresolved. Such agreements “are never easy between these two parties,” a Western official said.

A Palestinian inside the church compound was shot by an Israeli sniper Saturday. The man, identified as Khalaf Najazeh, 40, was a militant wanted by Israel and was spotted carrying a gun, an Israeli army spokesman said. Najazeh, who later died at an Israeli hospital, was the seventh person at the church to be killed by Israel since the standoff began, the spokesman said.

The army also said it had discovered a bomb-making factory in a medical clinic a few hundred yards from the church, which is revered by Christians as the site of Jesus’ birth.

On Thursday, Israel lifted what had been a parallel siege of Arafat’s Ramallah headquarters as part of a deal allowing six men wanted by Israel to be transferred to a Palestinian prison near Jericho. The prisoners are being monitored there by U.S. and British observers.

Arafat has said that it is his top priority to end the standoff in Bethlehem, the only West Bank city where a large number of Israeli troops remain from last month’s offensive. Most of the city is still under daily curfew.

The Palestinian leader was said to be overseeing Saturday’s negotiations and had dispatched his financial advisor, Mohammed Rashid, to lead the Palestinian side.

The diplomatic push on Bethlehem came on the eve of Orthodox Easter celebrations and as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon prepared to fly to Washington early today to hold talks with President Bush on the U.S. leader’s call for a Middle East peace conference.

But the latest round of talks aimed at resolving the Bethlehem standoff took center stage for most of the day.

Antoine Salman, an attorney for the Franciscan monastery in the compound who has acted as a liaison for the negotiations, said the situation inside was “very complicated and difficult.”

“After so many days, the people are suffering from shortages of so many things--food, medicine, water, electricity,” Salman said. “Each day, it gets worse.”

Palestinians said the man killed Saturday was a member of Arafat’s security services. Israel said he was a member of the Tanzim, the armed wing of the Palestinian leader’s Fatah movement. About 30 of those inside consoled one another over Najazeh’s death.

Ibrahim Abeiyat, the Bethlehem commander of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and the man inside the church who tops Israel’s wanted list, said he understood that he and the others would probably be exiled to Egypt.

Negotiators said they could not discuss specifics of the emerging agreement.

Late Saturday, Mitri abu Aita, the Palestinian tourism minister, said the list prepared by people inside the church would be kept by the negotiators and compared with a list of wanted men compiled by Israel. The Israelis have said they are still not aware of exactly which men are inside the church.

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Trounson reported from Jerusalem and Miller from Bethlehem. Times staff writer Mark Magnier in Bethlehem and photographer Carolyn Cole inside the Church of the Nativity contributed to this report.