Posted on 04/04/2002 3:00:34 PM PST by RCW2001
Church caretaker and bell ringer shot and killed during Bethlehem standoff
Thu Apr 4, 2:21 PM ET
By IBRAHIM HAZBOUN, Associated Press Writer
BETHLEHEM, West Bank - Bethlehem's residents always knew by the tolling bells at the Church of the Nativity when a mass was under way, when a couple was getting married, when someone died and was to be buried. Samir Ibrahim Salman, who rang the bells, had a different chime for each one.
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Inside the basilica, built above the spot revered as Jesus' birth grotto, 240 armed Palestinians have been holed up since Tuesday, with Israeli troops closing in and calling on the gunmen to surrender and come out. No one has done so.
At dawn Thursday, Salman set out for the church, gunfire or no gunfire. He did so every day for most of his life.
He was well-known by the Palestinian Christian community, which makes up about half of the city's population of about 30,000 people.
You could see him there wiping the drips of candle wax from the old marble and stone or helping the Greek Orthodox priests with their services. But he was best known for his ringing. Each day he'd climb the steps up to the bell tower in the fourth-century, fortress-like stone and wood church.
He was a poor man. He lived alone. He never married. Both of his parents passed away.
"He was a simple guy. He never harmed any person," said a relative, Anton Salman, who spoke by telephone from inside the besieged church. "He never spoke to anyone, but if you asked for help, he would run to do it for you."
He was only interested in taking care of the church, the relative said. And so he hoped to do the same, even as the church became the center of a standoff. He was shot in the chest and died, his body slumping into a street just a few steps from the church.
It was not clear who fired the shots.
At the Church of the Nativity, the standoff continued.
Gunmen and others inside the church said Israeli troops blew open a back door leading into a small courtyard next to the ancient stone shrine and fired inside, wounding three people. The Israeli military denied the claim, saying soldiers did not make a move on the shrine.
Mazen Hassan, a Palestinian policeman in the church, said he and other armed men were close to the metal door when it was blown open and shots were fired injuring the people. An Associated Press reporter speaking to Hassan by phone could hear the sound of heavy shooting in the background. Hassan said Palestinians were not returning fire.
However, Lt. Col. Olivier Rafowicz, an Israeli army spokesman, denied soldiers moved into the church compound. Other military officials said there was shooting in nearby Manger Square, and that troops were pursuing gunmen.
The Israeli military prevented reporters from reaching the church to independently assess the rival claims.
Rafowicz said Israel has been offering safe passage out of the church for anyone wishing it, and that Palestinian officials holed up inside "are preventing the people from leaving."
The standoff at the church began Tuesday, when the fighters, who had been engaged in heavy gunbattles with advancing Israeli troops for hours, dashed a few dangerous steps from the Palace Hotel to the Church of the Nativity.
An army video released Thursday showed the gunmen running a dozen at a time from the nearby hotel, their heavy footfalls splashing puddles in the cobblestone path under a slashing rain. "One at a time," shouted one of the men. Wearing military vests and boots and carrying rifles, they ran as another turned and provided cover, wildly firing an assault rifle.
Inside the dark, cold church nuns and priests, among about 60 members of the clergy there, have attended to 10 wounded gunmen and tried to come up with blankets. Two of the wounded need immediate medical care, said Father Ibrahim Faltas.
The bells rang out Thursday afternoon. This time though it wasn't Salman tugging at their ropes.
jak-kl
Anyone who claims to know is simply pushing their agenda. Is that what are doing, my friend?I am asking who it's going to be to autopsy the corpse. Wanna guess? My agenda is not to mask what is happnin with suppositions, even though I am pretty sure that it was not one of the suckers inside who did it.
Thanks for the ping, MM.
Actually that's what Bush is doing now, to the world's consternation.
As for your original theory, it is possible, but, using Occam's razor, unlikely. The IDF is a disciplined organization which wants to aviod the PR nightmare of damaging the church. The PA genmen, a band of terrorists and yahoos, holed up in the church because it was where they'd be safest from the IDF.
Interesting questions. A year ago on Free Republic these questions might have elicited some interesting and informative comments. Unfortunately, FR discussions of the role of the US in the conflict have now deteriorated into name calling and insults.
they collectively hate the Jews.Another ignorant prejudiced biggot.
Well then what side could it have been? Hmmmmm.
(IsraelNN.com) Vatican Ambassador to Israel Cardinal Pietro Samari apologized to the Israel Defense Forces for the incorrect and false report of the supposed death of a priest in St. Mary's Church in Bethlehem.
The Vatican accusation was the result of yet another PA disinformation bulletin, part of Yasser Arafats propaganda campaign designed to besmirch Israel in the eyes of the international community.
Please note:
This apology was not issued publicly as was the false report that the IDF had killed a Catholic Priest in his church. I don't expect to see it on the networks nor in the lamestream. The Pope, himself, should have shouted out this apology for a lie perpetrated by Arafat and his merry murderers. He was certainly quick on the draw to defend the SOBs.
The lead tank came up to what looked like a perfectly intact newer model automobile and instead a driving by it, the tank drove over crushed it.
The hatred sickens me. I am afraid Attila Sharon is leading his country to extinction, and maybe us, too.
Excellent spin.
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