Original version

BBC World Service Online

Witness History

Podcasts

Factual: Life Stories

Factual: History

History as told by the people who were there

History as told by the people who were there.

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service East Asia

Witness History: The siege at the Church of the Nativity

Documentaries

Ariel Sharon visits al-Aqsa

14/09/2023 GMT

The siege at the Church of the Nativity

BBC World Service - Witness History, The siege at the Church of the Nativity

The final days of one of the most dramatic sieges of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

In May 2002 a group of Palestinian gunmen, civilians and nuns and monks, were holed up inside one of Christianity's most holy sites.

The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is on the site believed by Christians to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ.

But in 2002, it was at the centre of one of the most dramatic sieges of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

For almost six weeks, Palestinian gunmen and civilians were holed up in the church.

In 2015 Louise Hidalgo spoke to Father Amjad Sabbara, a Franciscan friar who lived in the compound, and to Carolyn Cole, an American photojournalist who managed to get inside the church in the last days of the siege.

(Photo: Journalists stand behind barricades guarded by Israeli soldiers metres away from where Palestinians are holed up in the Church of the Nativity. Credit: Gali Tibbon/ AFP via Getty Images)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Witness History

The siege at the Church of the Nativity

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service