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Witness History: The siege at the Church of the Nativity

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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)

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