Buses carrying militants leave Nativity church

BETHLEHEM - Thirty-nine Palestinian militants who had been holed up for five weeks inside Bethelehem's Church of the Nativity have boarded buses and been taken away from the shrine.

Under a European-brokered deal, 13 men on Israel's most-wanted list were heading for Israel's Ben-Gurion airport for a flight to Cyprus aboard a British military aircraft, and another 26 gunmen were being sent to the Gaza Strip.

An army spokeswoman said a bus carrying the 13 had stopped at a nearby military base, where one of them would be treated for a leg wound, and that they would then be taken to the airport near Tel Aviv.

An Israeli aviation official said the plane was to take the 13 to temporary sanctuary in Cyprus. They would be put up under guard at a hotel, possibly in Larnaca, a popular coastal resort in Cyprus.

From there, the men were to be distributed among other European host countries in a deal which ended the 38-day standoff at one of Christianity's holiest sites.

EU diplomats said the final destinations of the 13, likely to involve several countries, may be finalized only when EU foreign ministers hold a regular meeting in Brussels on Monday.

The militants took refuge in the church on April 2 when Israeli troops entered Bethlehem as part of a West Bank offensive launched after a series of Palestinian suicide bombings.

The breakthrough in deal-making to end the siege of the Church of the Nativity - built on the spot revered by Christians as the birthplace or Jesus - suddenly emerged with the plan to take the militants first to Cyprus and then to third countries.

- REUTERS

Feature: Middle East

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