wfn.org | Israeli Official Says Bethlehem Siege to End

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For information, contact:
Fr. Raed Abusahlia
Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem
P.O.Box  14152 - Jerusalem 97500
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Franciscan Pleads: Don't Forget the Basilica

JERUSALEM, MAY 9, 2002 - A deal has been reached to end the monthlong siege
at Bethlehem4s Basilica of the Nativity, an Israeli official was quoted
saying.

The deal would divide among several countries the 13 suspected militants, now
holed up the historic church, who Israel wants deported, the Associated Press
said today.  Cypriot Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides was quoted as
saying his country would take in the militants, for the time being.

Earlier, the Franciscan general superior appealed to the international
community not to forget the basilica.

According to the Rome-based Zenit news agency, several dozens of Palestinian
militants are still inside the church, as well as Franciscan men and women
religious, and Armenian and Greek-Orthodox monks, who have been shut in there
since April 2.

-end-

"It is not for us to indicate which country must receive the 13 Palestinians
of the Nativity," the minister general of the Order of Friars Minor, Father
Giacomo Bini, said in statements to the missionary agency Misna. "However, I
extend an invitation to continue the dialogue so that a solution will be
found with the cooperation of all."