Hymns, Not Gunfire, Fill Bethlehem
Song and prayer echoed through the freshly scrubbed basilica of the Church of the Nativity today as a Sunday service was celebrated there for the first time since the end of a 39-day siege.

"I feel like someone who was dead and is alive again," said Bishop Ambrosios, the abbot of the Greek Orthodox monastery next to the church. "We were crucified, but today we are resurrected."

The ancient basilica looked completely restored to its former state.

Palestinian gunmen and others who had taken shelter in the church when Israeli forces entered Bethlehem on April 2 left on Friday under an agreement with Israeli forces, who later withdrew from the city.

Today, worshipers dressed in their Sunday finery gathered near the church's main altar as the Greek Orthodox patriarch, Irineos, presided over the service and later greeted the faithful.

Worshipers said that, for the first time, Greek Orthodox Easter observances had not been held at the church, because of the siege. "This is our Easter," said one priest as the service ended.

Outside the church, life was returning to normal after nearly six weeks of curfew that had confined 100,000 residents to their homes. Manger Square was packed with parked cars and taxis, shops were open and Palestinian policemen were on the streets. Electric company workers were repairing downed lines and work had begun to remove mounds of rubbish and the shells of cars crushed by Israeli armored vehicles.

One junked car bore a message left by an Israeli soldier. "For sale," it said, "call 1-800-SHAHEED," the Arabic term for martyr, which is used by Palestinians when referring to suicide bombers and those killed by Israeli forces.

There were also signs of damage by both Palestinians and Israelis. At the Greek Orthodox monastery next to the Church of the Nativity, windows facing what had been an Israeli sniper position in an adjacent building were riddled with bullet holes. It appeared that several rooms belonging to priests had been broken into and used by the besieged Palestinians.

One room, where a Palestinian had been killed by Israeli sniper fire, was a shambles. A bullet had pierced the room's metal door. Israeli officers had asserted during the siege that army snipers fired only at armed Palestinians spotted outside the compound buildings.

Some people who attended the church services criticized the militants who took refuge there for keeping their weapons while taking shelter in the church. "There is a saying that whoever enters the house of God is safe," said Reema Juha, 44, "but they should have surrendered their guns."
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/13/international/middleeast/13BETH.html