Under fire in Bethlehem

Journalists have been forced to seek shelter

By the BBC's James Reynolds in Bethlehem

When I arrived in Bethlehem on Monday with my colleagues Bruce Hopkins and Youssef Shomali, it was a tense time.

Everyone was expecting Israeli forces to move in that night. We spoke to gunmen in Manger Square who they told us they were ready to fight the Israelis.

You should all leave. It is not safe here

Israeli officer to Bethlehem hotel manager

We had to find a place to stay - somewhere relatively safe - so we chose the Star Hotel, one of the only hotels still open in Bethlehem.

Overnight, things began to happen. We heard Israeli warplanes.

Then word came through that tanks were going into nearby Beit Sahour.

We put on our flak jackets and started filing reports from our hotel room.

Then the tanks came closer. I could see them through binoculars a few streets away - just outside Manger Square.

As dawn broke we began to hear shooting - machine-gun fire and tank rounds.

At first it was far away and we watched tracer fire arc through the sky.

Tanks on streets

Then the firing got closer. We crouched behind the walls of our room. Suddenly, the shooting seemed to be all around us.

We ran from the room and took refuge in the stairwell - wondering how long the firing would last and whether we would be able to continue working.

The gun battles lasted till dusk. The next day we awoke to see tanks on the streets.

No one was allowed to move from their homes - the town was under curfew and had been declared a closed military zone.

We decided to see for ourselves what was going on so we headed out into the streets. They were deserted.

Around us were broken glass, abandoned cars, rubble and bullet cartridges.

Israeli troops forced the media away from Manger Square

We got to the end of a road but when we saw an Israeli armoured personnel carrier we had to turn back.

Later that day a convoy came to our hotel - two Israeli vehicles followed by American and British armoured cars.

They were there to evacuate a number of activists from the International Solidarity Movement.

Armed US soldiers told them to put their hands on their heads - to leave the hotel lobby one by one. They were all searched.

'Don't shoot'

As the convoy got ready to leave, the hotel manager spoke to one of the Israeli commanders.

"Don't forget, there are still many people inside. Don't start shooting here."

"You should all leave," the commander replied. "It is not safe here."

On Thursday we tried to get out into the streets of Bethlehem once again, this time as part of a group of 50 reporters and cameramen.

Our aim was to get to Manger Square, the site of a standoff between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen holed up in the Church of the Nativity.

Turned back

We walked through narrow alleyways with Youssef in front, waving a white flag.

I carried a white towel. Others had tied white pillowcases round their arms. Anything to indicate we were journalists - not gunmen.

We approached Manger Square but were stopped by an Israeli patrol.

They ordered us to turn back and warned us they would use everything they had against us.

Now, as I write from the hotel, I can hear Israeli tanks moving on the streets ahead of me.

Plea for medicine

The sounds of gunfire have become very familiar now and less terrifying.

In the lobby there is a sign to all media teams with armoured cars - "please go to the hospitals and collect medication for distribution.

"You are the only ones who can travel on the streets right now."

Like others in Bethlehem, we wait to see how long the tanks will stay.