Siege ends - what next?

Palestinian militants arrive in Cyprus

A Royal Air Force Hercules landed at an airport in Cyprus this morning, decanting thirteen Palestinian men described by Israel as 'murderous terrorists'.

They were then taken by bus to a hotel in Larnaca, and before long they will be dispersed to a variety of European countries for a quiet life in exile.

That, anyway, is supposed to be the concluding chapter to one of the most bizarre stories in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the thirteen, along with more than a hundred other people, have spent 38 days holed up in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

The siege by the Israeli Defence Forces ended earlier today with a compromise deal that allowed the alleged terrorists to go free, but only on condition that they left the country.

After negotiations had broken down repeatedly, it was the willingness of Cyprus to receive the exiles that ended the deadlock. The country's Foreign Minister, Yanis Kasoulides, told The World at One how the arrival of the Palestinians went.

Where next?

The final destination of the 13 Palestinians in Cyprus has yet to be decided.

Spain, Austria, Greece, Luxembourg, Ireland and even Canada have been mentioned: the plan seems to be to split the group up into twos and threes - but what then? Spain - holding the EU Presidency - is holding a meeting on Monday to try to thrash out the details, and the Spanish Foreign Ministry told us today that there was no clear plan about what the longer term fate of the men would be.

That sense of uncertainty was confirmed when The World At One spoke to the Foreign Office Minister, Ben Bradshaw, who told us the militants' future would have to be decided by the Palestinian Authority and Israeli Government.

And Vincent Lucer, who speaks for the International Committee of the Red Cross on Middle East issues, told the programme that the ICRC had not been approached in relation to supervising the militants' detention.

Mark Sofer, a senior official of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said he would have preferred the terrorists to have been brought to justice in Israel but he hoped the Israelis had seen the back of them. He refused to confirm whether Israel was planning any action in the Gaza strip in retaliation for recent suicide bombings against Israeli civilians.