Soldiers bar Bethlehem residents from Sunday worship services

BETHLEHEM, West Bank -- On the first Sunday since Israel reoccupied Bethlehem, troops barred Christians from worshipping at the Church of the Nativity, one of Christianity's most sacred shrines. Soldiers in another part of the West Bank searched four mosques for suspected militants.

There were no signs that the Israelis were near an end to the operation in the biblical town, despite a State Department call for troops to leave as soon as possible, with Christmas just a month away. Christian tradition holds that Jesus was born in a grotto under the Bethlehem church.

Israeli forces rolled into Bethlehem, in the West Bank just south of Jerusalem, early Friday after a Palestinian suicide bomber from Bethlehem blew himself up on a Jerusalem bus a day before, killing 11 passengers and injuring more than 40 other people.

The army has conducted house-to-house searches for militants there, and more than 30 Palestinians -- three believed to be connected to suicide bombing operations -- were arrested, army officers said.

Strict curfew

Church bells rang Sunday, but Manger Square, like the streets of Bethlehem, was empty Sunday as soldiers enforced a strict curfew, confining the town's residents to their homes.

At the fortress-like 4th century church, a few monks and nuns sang hymns and prayed. Israeli forces allowed about 15 Franciscan monks to enter the ancient structure. Greek Orthodox priests celebrated a liturgy. The more modern St. Catherine's Church next door, where the Christmas Eve Mass is conducted, was empty.

The scene reminded the Rev. Ibrahim Faltas of an even more tense situation six months ago, when dozens of Palestinian gunmen fled into the church ahead of invading Israeli forces, setting off a 39-day stalemate.

Israeli forces encircled the church and demanded that the gunmen surrender. The standoff ended when Israel and the Palestinians agreed that 26 of the gunmen would be sent to Gaza and 13 others exiled to Europe.

"The church is sad without worshippers, who are the lives of the church," Faltas said. "On this Sunday we are praying for peace in Bethlehem and call on God to decrease the suffering of the people."

Israeli troops blocked off the entrance to the church and declared a curfew in the first stages of their incursion Friday to prevent gunmen from taking refuge there again.

Ending test case

The suicide bombing and the Israeli incursion put an end to a test case agreed on by Israel and the Palestinians, aimed at reducing tensions that have grown steadily through more than two years of violence. Israeli forces pulled out of Bethlehem in mid-August, turning the town over to Palestinian security. The Israelis said the Palestinians had to control militants and stop attacks against Israelis.

There was a tentative agreement to extend the arrangement to Hebron, south of Bethlehem, but Israeli forces retook Palestinian neighborhoods of Hebron earlier this month after gunmen ambushed and killed 12 soldiers and security guards as Jewish settlers were returning from Sabbath prayers.

Now Israeli forces are in control of all the main Palestinian towns and cities in the West Bank, except for the isolated desert oasis of Jericho.

In Tubas, a village near the city of Nablus, Israeli forces surrounded four mosques and searched them, residents said. They were looking for a prayer caller, Mohammed Alkilani, suspected of involvement in attacks against Israelis.

In one of the mosques, where troops were apparently convinced Alkilani was hiding, they called over loudspeakers for him to surrender, and then searched the interior, but did not find him, said Jamal Attiya, the imam of the "Old Mosque."

The army would say only that soldiers were conducting searches and making arrests in the town of Tubas.

Also Sunday, Israel said it had a document showing that the Palestinian Authority was planning to set up a factory to produce nitric acid, a key ingredient of explosives. Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, accused Rashid Abu Shabak, head of the Palestinian Preventive Security force in Gaza, of organizing the effort to make high-quality explosives.

Abu Shabak hotly denied the charge, calling it "baseless" and "Israeli propaganda."