Fires Start in Gunbattle in Bethlehem Compound
Buildings inside the Church of the Nativity compound were briefly aflame tonight after rifle fire at Manger Square ignited into the worst skirmish at the compound since the beginning of the siege early last month.

The rifle fire began shortly before midnight and quickly escalated into a rolling crescendo of gunfire. Half a dozen flares were then shot into the air, bathing the church and its adjacent buildings in a brilliant white light while stray red tracer rounds rose into the sky.

About 25 minutes after the gunfire began, orange fire began to lick out from within the compound. Although it was impossible to fully assess the damage in the darkness and the smoke, it did not appear that fire had breached the basilica, built on the ground where Christians believe Jesus was born.

Flames seemed instead to be rising from adjacent buildings and were mostly extinguished or burned out within an hour.

Israeli military officials said the blaze was put out by Palestinians in the compound, who refused Israeli offers of assistance and hastily organized a fire brigade.

It was not immediately clear tonight who started the shooting — the Palestinians inside the compound or the Israeli soldiers who have surrounded it. Each side blamed the other.

"They tried to attack the church," said a Palestinian man inside the compound who was reached by cellphone as the gunfire raged outside.

Dr. Dore Gold, a former ambassador to the United Nations and a senior adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, called the Palestinian claim a baseless lie and said people inside the compound had deliberately set it ablaze.

"The fire was caused by an act of Palestinian arson," Dr. Gold said. "It was not caused by an exchange of gunfire."

Israel said none of its soldiers suffered injuries during the shooting; Palestinians' tallies varied. One man inside the church said that none had been hurt. Another man told reporters that three men had been wounded. It was not clear what had caused the injuries — the gunfighting or the firefighting.

Lt. Col. Olivier Rafowicz said the fires tonight began after Palestinians in the compound opened a sustained barrage of shooting against Israeli soldiers at the Bethlehem Peace Center, the large building in Manger Square where the two sides have been trying to negotiate a settlement to the siege since last week.

The colonel said that Israeli soldiers in the area, a mix of paratroopers and snipers, did not return fire directly, but rather shot into the night sky. "We did not make any damage to the church," he said. "We did not fire at them. We fired only into the air."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/02/international/middleeast/02BETH.html