Monday, April 08, 2002 10:51 AM

Title: Ten Wounded Trapped Inside Nativity Church, Lawyer Says

Contact: Fr. Raed Awad Abusahlia Personal E-mail: Latin Patriarchate E-mail: Latin Patriarchate's Homepage: http://www.Lpj.org "Nonviolence Homepage": http://go.to/nonviolence

By Edward Calis

JERUSALEM, April 6, 2002--Tony Salman, a Palestinian lawyer trapped inside the Nativity Church in Bethlehem, told Via Dolorosa through a cellular phone April 5 that there are currently 245 people inside the church, ten of whom are wounded waiting for a miracle to save their lives.

I just finished talking to one of the trapped people inside the Nativity Church. Lawyer Tony Salman is also the head of the Catholic St. Anthony Charitable Foundation in Bethelehem.

Salman explained how he ended up inside the Church by saying, "After rumors circulated in Bethlehem alleging that the Palestinian resistance forces attacked priests and took them as hostages, infuriated Bethelehem Governer Muhammad Al Madani, called me and insisted that we enter the church together to investigate those rumors.

"You know this is a very sensitive subject in Palestine and we had to know the truth. So we entered the church from the western side and we were pleased to see the situation inside opposite to what we heard and exactly as we expected.

"Priests and nuns are taking care of the wounded and are doing all they can to alleviate the dramatic situation.

"Franciscans, Greek Orthodox and Armenian priests inside the church are making sure everyone is having something to eat. They exhausted all flour they had in store to make bread for everyone during the first two days.

"Now evyerone is having one small meal a day which contains either a little bit of spaghetti or rice, all that left in the church."

When asked why the Palestinian resistance took the church as refuge, Salman explained that they were left with two choices, either to be killed in cold blood by the Israeli occupation forces or run for their lives to the chrch. The chose the latter.

This happened right after the Israeli tanks shelled Omar Bin Khattab mosque last tuesday located just across the church's square. They ran into the church for protection.

"For the last 1700 years, the Church of the Nativity has embraced the poor and the persecuted and it will keep doing that in these difficult days too," Salman added.

He pointed out, "Usually, there are a lot of armed policemen and security agents protecting governmental buildings here. When the Israelis invaded the Nativity Church area, snipers targeted those armed policemen and started killing them without hesitation. Their only choice was to take refuge in the Nativity Church."

Salman assured that the Israelis tried to knock down the main door of the Nativity Church a number of times without success, but he said that they succeeded to destroy part of a wall.

He pointed out that his main mission together with the governer is to negotiate the wounded release with the Red Cross and the Red Crecscent. "So far we haven't been successful," he added.

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