Franciscans Condemn Bethlehem Assault as Barbarity

Mon Apr 8, 2:13 AM ET By Philip Pullella ROME (Reuters) -

Franciscans, who had been working for a peaceful solution to a standoff at Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, condemned on Monday an Israeli assault as an act of "indescribable barbarity" with long-term consequences.

Father David Jaeger, spokesman for custodians of Catholic sites in the Holy Land, who is currently in Rome, told Reuters he had been told by telephone that Israeli troops had begun firing on the convent and that a fire had started.

He said one man had been killed by gunfire while trying to put out the fire.

"This is an act of indescribable barbarity. It is a violation of every law of humanity and civilisation. It is a violation of the explicit and repeated public and diplomatic guarantees of the State of Israel with consequences that will be long-term and incalculable," he said.

"We put our trust in God and we appeal to the whole world to condemn this act and stop this behavior from continuing," he said.

Some 200 Palestinian gunmen and civilians took refuge in the Bethlehem church on Tuesday and have remained holed up inside along with 40 Franciscan monks and four nuns.

Mohammed al-Madani, the Palestinian governor of the West Bank city who is inside the Bethlehem complex, said soldiers in the municipality building 100 meters (yards) to the west and gunners in two tanks to the south were shooting at the church Christians believe marks the site of Jesus's birth.

ATTACK WAS FEARED

Franciscans, who run many of the Holy Land's religious sites for the Catholic Church, had been fearing an Israeli assault.

Speaking to Reuters on Sunday night in Rome, Jaeger accused Israel of putting pressure on Franciscan monks to leave, fearing this was a prelude to an attack on Palestinians inside.

Israel had accused the Palestinians of using the church as a sanctuary and using the clergy inside as virtual hostages, but says its troops are under orders not to fire at holy places.

Palestinians said it is the troops surrounding the church who have effectively taken those inside hostage.

In his address on Sunday, Pope John Paul (news - web sites) said he felt close to those who are "living through difficult hours" in the Bethlehem church.

Vatican (news - web sites) diplomats and Church officials in the Holy Land had put forward a proposal to Israelis and Palestinians to end the Bethlehem standoff.

Catholic sources said that under the proposal, which Vatican diplomats and Church officials had been working out with the help of other diplomats, the Palestinians in the basilica would be given safe passage to the Gaza Strip (news - web sites), leaving their weapons behind.

Israel's latest offensive has been confined to the West Bank and has not affected Gaza, which is separated from the West Bank by Israeli territory.

The Israel army is in its 11th day of a massive sweep of the West Bank following a spate of Palestinian suicide bombings.