Israeli forces move on West Bank city

Armed Palestinians besieged by Israeli forces in Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity were today running out of food but refusing to surrender.

Meanwhile Israeli forces widened their West Bank offensive by overrunning the city of Nablus bringing seven main Palestinian towns under their control.

Troops and tanks surrounded four Palestinian refugee camps next to Nablus. Earlier, columns of tanks entered the city, the largest in the West Bank, accompanied by attack helicopters, witnesses said.

One woman was killed in an explosion in Nablus, residents said, but the circumstances were not clear.

Some said an Israeli helicopter fired a missile that hit an apartment house, killing the woman. Others said the explosion came from inside the building, indicating that a bomb being prepared by a militant went off accidentally.

Israel’s Security Cabinet met in a late-night session to consider the next phase in the open-ended campaign, dubbed, Operation Protective Wall. No details about the meeting were immediately available.

In Bethlehem, under tight Israeli control, the US organised an armoured convoy to extract about 15 foreigners trapped in the biblical town, but the standoff at the Church of the Nativity, built on the traditional site of the birth of Jesus and one of Christianity’s most important sites, continued.

About 300 Palestinians, nearly all of them armed, have been holed up in the shrine since Tuesday, running from Israeli forces after hours of heavy gun battles near the church.

Father Ibrahim, the superior of the Franciscan community in the Nativity church, told the Vatican news agency by telephone from the church that food supplies had run out and ‘‘the situation is critical. Please help us’’.

Israeli defence minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said Israel had ‘‘no intention to break into any church’’, but army officials said those inside would not be allowed to go free.

Five Italian journalists and an Armenian colleague, who had been trapped in the church compound by the fighting, were among those evacuated yesterday.

More than a dozen leaders of Christian churches in the Holy Land, including Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, tried to reach Bethlehem yesterday but were turned away at an Israeli military checkpoint.

Several dozen Palestinians, including some who were armed, also sought sanctuary at St Mary’s, a Roman Catholic convent near Manger Square. At one point, a priest and seven nuns emerged from the convent, but by then the gunmen had slipped out the back, the army said.

Israeli army spokesman, Brigadier General Ron Kitrey, said the bound body of a Palestinian man wearing a camouflage jacket was found in the building, and that the circumstances of his death were not immediately clear.

The bodies of five more Palestinians, including at least two gunmen, were found elsewhere in Bethlehem. One of the corpses was discovered in a mosque witnesses said had been damaged by an Israeli tank shell.

Mr Arafat remained trapped inside his office building in Ramallah, a town under Israeli control along with Qalqiliya, Tulkarem, Bethlehem and Nablus. Only Hebron and Jericho have been spared so far.

Accompanied by about 300 people, including aides, security guards and several dozen foreign volunteers, Mr Arafat still has use of a mobile phone. Israel insists it is trying to keep him relatively comfortable in custody.

Israeli forces entered the Jenin refugee camp early yesterday. Militia leaders there said they were preparing for a last stand against the invaders.

Ali Safouri, a militia leader, said he and his men were trying to make every bullet count. ‘‘We use it for sniping only, we are not shooting in all directions,’’ he said.