gelatik
17.04.02, 23:41
BETHLEHEM, West Bank, – Food rations are scarce and the smell of decomposing
bodies permeates the air, the night air is regularly pierced by Israeli
loudspeakers, but the 250 Palestinians besieged in the Church of the Nativity
will never surrender, a Palestinian teenager who managed to escape from the
Church told The New York Times Wednesday, April 17.
Jihad Abdul Rahman, 16-years-old, said it was the terrible smell and the cold,
that forced him to make his escape from the church, which has been surrounded
by Israeli occupation troops since April 2.
Approximately 240 people have taken refuge inside the 1,400-year-old basilica
for more than two weeks.
Once busy with the buses of pilgrims visiting one of Christianity's most sacred
places, the entire area of Manger Square, has been completely destroyed by the
Israeli army.
The Israelis claim they will maintain the siege until they capture about 30
resistance fighters inside who are wanted by Israel.
Abdul Rahman’s report fits in with others received by telephone from officials,
monks and others within the church.
The teenager said the intestines of one severely wounded man were exposed, and
were giving off a horrific odor. Another man's leg was severely wounded by
shrapnel, and gangrene seemed to have attacked the flesh around the exposed
bones. No one washed, and there was only one toilet for everyone.
The bodies of two Palestinian policemen who were shot dead have been stored in
one of the caverns below the church — although not the one in which a 14-point
star of silver marks the spot where Christians believe that Mary gave birth to
Jesus.
Late Wednesday, the Israelis finally sent an ambulance to evacuate two men,
including the man with the abdomen wound and another with epilepsy. Both were
taken to a military hospital.
The Israelis have also detained some wives and mothers of men inside,
Palestinians said, and were broadcasting the information over loudspeakers to
them.
Abdul Rahman said he went to the church on April 3, the day after the
Palestinians took refuge there, to bring bread and cigarettes to neighbors from
the Dheisheh camp. A side door was still accessible, and he was allowed in. He
stayed the night. In the morning, however, the Israelis blasted the door and
sealed off the escape route.
In ensuing days, the Israelis took up positions all around the Nativity
compound. Tanks were parked on Manger Square, and snipers took up positions on
surrounding roofs.
Using loudspeakers, the Israelis soon began to terrorize those inside the
church with sounds of approaching helicopters, tanks, and barking dogs. They
also repeatedly played a tape, in Arabic and English, urging the monks to come
out and telling the Palestinian men that if they came out, their mothers would
stop weeping and would cook them good meals.
The Israelis also fired stun grenades and long bursts of gunfire.
The noise made sleep impossible through the night, Abdul Rahman said. Food was
one small portion of rice or noodles a day.
On Monday, April 15, at about 1 p.m., he jumped over the wall of the Greek
monastery. Israeli soldiers immediately fired at his feet, and then ordered him
to strip, and climb over the second wall.
He said he was handcuffed, blindfolded and taken to a military base for
questioning. He said they asked him whether Ahmed Mughrabi, a leader of the Al
Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, was inside. He said no.
They asked him about weapons, and about food supplies. Finally, they released
him to a United Nations official, Wednesday, April 17.
