BETHLEHEM, West Bank - Israeli troops opened fire Thursday on three armed Palestinians emerging from the besieged Church of the Nativity, killing one, sending two staggering back into the shrine and drawing Palestinian fire, the army said.
The shootout came only hours after a fire broke out in the compound during another gunbattle. The flames damaged several rooms and offices, but not the 4th-century basilica itself.
The Palestinians said the fire, which burned for a half hour, was sparked by Israeli flares shot into the church compound during the fighting. Israel initially accused the Palestinians of arson, but Col. Miri Eisin of Israel's military intelligence later said that after viewing video footage of the nighttime fighting, Israel was checking whether the flares did indeed spark the flames.
The fighting erupted during Greek Orthodox Easter week, a day before Good Friday, according to the Orthodox calendar. The residents of biblical Bethlehem have been confined to their homes by an Israeli military curfew since forces invaded the biblical town April 2, in pursuit of suspected Palestinian militants.
In another development, 10 Western activists dashed across Manger Square on Thursday afternoon and entered the church, delivering food to those inside. The Israeli army detained 13 activists who served as a decoy for those who managed to slip inside, the activists said.
"We succeeded in providing food to people who needed it," said Robert O'Neill, one of several Americans who made it into the church.
"We are going to stay here until it's over," said O'Neill, who spoke to The Associated Press on a mobile phone.
In Jerusalem, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, a papal envoy, met Thursday with Israeli President Moshe Katsav and was to hold talks later in the day with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to try to resolve the standoff.
"I come to ask that everything be done ... to solve as soon as possible the tragic situation of Bethlehem and that the Basilica of the Nativity be restored to God," Etchegaray said after his meeting with Katsav.
Shortly after noon Thursday, three Palestinians emerged from the Church of the Nativity, walking into Manger Square. Israeli troops opened fire, and in the course of a 15-minute shootout, one of the Palestinians was killed and another two were wounded and fled back inside, the military said.
The body of the dead man, one of the wounded Palestinians and a third man who had fallen sick during the monthlong standoff, were later evacuated from the shrine.
The military has said that those inside can safely exit the church, except for the wanted gunmen.
Several hours earlier, flames leaped from the compound, about 15 meters (50 feet) from church, built over Jesus' traditional birth grotto.
The Fransciscan press office in Rome said several rooms and offices in the Franciscan monastery in the compound sustained fire damage. Palestinians in the compound said several rooms in the Greek Orthodox section were also damaged.
Three people were slightly burned as they battled to put out the blaze with buckets of water, Palestinians in the church said by telephone. Israel said it offered to help put out the flames, but that the Palestinians turned them down.
Arafat learned of the fire at the compound shortly after his release from months of confinement to his headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
"It's an ugly crime," Arafat said, pounding his fist on a table. "I call on the international community to take immediate measures in the face of this horrendous crime. Those terrorists, Nazis and racists, how can we tolerate them after committing this crime?"
Daniel Taub, a legal adviser for the Israeli Foreign ministry, accused Arafat of trying to use the situation in the church as "another excuse to inflame international passions."
An Israeli army spokesman, Lt. Col. Olivier Rafowicz, said the Palestinians have planted bombs in the compound. "We know that some of the internal doors have been booby trapped by the Palestinians," Rafowicz said.
Taub would not comment on the negotiations to resolve the confrontation but reaffirmed the Israeli position that all those inside are free to go except the 20 to 30 gunmen whom it wants to arrest or send into permanent exile.
Israeli forces have been surrounding the church since April 2, when more than 200 Palestinians, including gunmen, took refuge inside as Israeli troops invaded. About 75 Palestinians have walked out so far, including policemen and civilians.
The church remains the last point of contention from Israel's large-scale incursion into the West Bank that began March 29, after a series of deadly Palestinian suicide bomb attacks.
Over the past 1,600 years, rulers have threatened to destroy the Church of the Nativity, which was dedicated in 339, but it has rarely been scarred in conflict.
During the Arab Muslim conquest, many churches — including Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulcher — were heavily damaged or destroyed, but the Church of the Nativity survived.
"The church is in danger because both sides are armed," said Archbishop Aristarghos, chief secretary of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate. He said Christian leaders and the Israeli government agreed "every effort should be made to reduce the tension."