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CNN Live Today

More Than 100 People Emerge From Church of Nativity Compound

Aired May 10, 2002 - 11:02   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We're going to begin this hour at the Church of the Nativity. CNN's Mike Hanna is standing by in Bethlehem.

We were just watching moments ago, Mike, those first pictures coming from inside that church.

MIKE HANNA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Leon, more than 100 people emerged from the Church of the Nativity compound in the course of the day, on the 38th day of this ongoing standoff, the siege which is now over.

Let's take you inside the Church of the Nativity. What you see there behind me -- and we look at the first pictures received of the inside of The Basilica; this, the main body of the Church of the Nativity. The biggest structure within the compound in which so many people were contained for so long.

Looking around here, signs very much of a large amount of people living in a confined space for a lengthy, lengthy period of time, more than five weeks. All around here you see the debris left behind, sleeping bags, places where people in which people were sleeping on the floor. Opened tins of the food that had been brought in on an on- and-off basis throughout the 38 days of the siege.

No real signs of major damage within this Basilica itself, within the nave of the Basilica. By all accounts, the bulk of the some 200 people who spent such a long time in here were in this particular area of the Church of the Nativity compound. Looking again at the debris left behind in the wake of this lengthy standoff.

Here, as I say, you see no signs of major damage, but eye witnesses do say there was damage in one of the adjoining areas, which we do not see in these pictures. The Franciscan Parish Hall, which is off to the side of this particular area that you're looking at, badly damaged in a fire in April; a fire which occurred in disputed circumstances.

But with The Basilica itself, this Basilica right over the crypt in which Christian tradition has that Jesus Christ was born. No access given to that particular area, which is buried underneath the church itself in a series of caves underneath the church.

But looking here at what people endured, some of them civilians who fled into the church, along with a bulk of other people. Some of them Palestinian gunmen, and 13 of them Israel says on its wanted list. Thirteen people who are now in exile. They were flown out to Cyprus in the course of the day, where they will wait until they are taken to other areas.

So it is the end of this lengthy standoff. The siege of Bethlehem is over. The people of the city now looking to a lifting of the curfew which has been in place for most of the past five weeks -- Leon.

HARRIS: Mike, just one question. We saw that there really was no real damage inside the church. However, Israeli defense forces who did go inside are asserting that they saw evidence of booby traps being laid in there, and that there were a number of explosive devices in there. Have you heard any definitive report on that?

HANNA: Well, yes, the Israeli defense force was invited into the church by the representatives of the three religious bodies that run the Church of the Nativity compound. And an Israeli defense force spokesman says that at least 40, what he called explosive devices, were found within the body of the church. He says that some of these were, in his words, "booby traps," but would not get into specific details about exactly what it was.

But he did say that the Israeli defense force (UNINTELLIGIBLE). That is, the explosive experts found a number of booby traps, as he puts it. Found at least 40 explosive devices. And also handed over to U.S. officials earlier on were some 90 weapons, 90 rifles, AK-47s and M-16s, according to the Israeli defense force. So certainly in addition to that debris that we saw earlier, other things were left behind, according to the Israeli defense force, by those who spent these long weeks in here, Leon.

HARRIS: Mike Hanna, reporting live from Bethlehem. Thanks, Mike, take care -- Daryn.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We continue our coverage on the topic. More than 80 men from the church who were not accused of crimes were allowed to go home to their families today. Our Carol Lin was with one of those families in Bethlehem, and she joins us now by telephone -- Carol, hello.

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Daryn.

Yes, I'm at the home of the Rahal (ph) family. We've been here all day long, here in their Bethlehem home as they were waiting to hear word from not one, but two sons who were trapped inside the Church of the Nativity standoff. One, a married father of one child, Kasai Rahal (ph), who is a dental technician; and his brother, Baha Rahal (ph), 22, who is a student. They were swept into the Church of the Nativity, along with so many other people, because they just happened to be in the area at that time five weeks ago.

It's been an agonizing for the family. But right now I'm standing in the courtyard where there are probably about 30 family members here. Lots of hugs and kisses. We were at the crossroads, where many of the civilians were dropped off by the Israeli police. They were dropped off at the Al Hussein (ph) Hospital near Bethlehem because primarily so that there were ambulances that could take them across town if they didn't have a ride to their house. The city of Bethlehem is still under curfew, so a lot of these relatives actually took their chances in breaking the law to try to catch up with their relatives at that crossroads.

But, Daryn, we're just beginning to get the details of the 38 days that these two men were inside the Church of the Nativity. One of them has lost -- get this -- more than 20 pounds because of lack of food and water during some of the time that he was in there. We're just beginning to ask some questions about damage inside the church, who caused that damage and what the experience has been like.

But I can tell you that it's a sweet scene, after being with this family for eight hours today, to finally see them reunited.

KAGAN: Yeah, Carol, share with us a little bit what that reunion was like.

LIN: Oh, Daryn, you know we rushed up. They were trying to make the -- we got the call here in the family courtyard that finally the buses were going to be leaving and that they would be dropped off at this crossroads in front of the hospital. And the family was ecstatic.

They were debating, though, whether they were going to try to break curfew to make it across town to get to the hospital. We drove out with them when they made that decision, and they pulled over. And we came upon this scene.

There must have been about 100 people gathered in the streets, the sirens were going with the police as they were dropping these people off. And there was a sea of people, all these men running up the street. Mothers standing there with open arms, kisses and hugs. And there were even really tender quiet moments, where it was just a full embrace, where no words could actually be exchanged between the people as to how they felt at that very moment.

For the Rahal (ph) family, it was one of those tender, quiet moments. I don't know what I expected. I think I expected a lot of, you know, whooping and shouting, but maybe that's just because I'm American.

It was just a sweet moment where the mother just closed her eyes, and she took one of her sons into her arms and she kissed him once on each cheek. And they looked at each other and just didn't even say a word for at least a full minute, until they finally realized that this was the moment that they had been waiting for all these weeks.

KAGAN: Carol, just real quickly, how did these two men end up in the church in the first place?

LIN: They just happened to be there. Both of the brothers were running an errand, actually. The one I was telling you about, the father of this nine-month old baby, is a dental technician, and he was dropping off some equipment near the Church of the Nativity when there was this eruption of gunfire and people running.

And so, you know, as any of us do in a crowd situation, you tend to run with the crowd thinking that it's going to bring you into safety. And where he ended up running was inside the Church of the Nativity.

Our producer here is just having a conversation with him in Arabic -- one of the brothers -- about exactly what the circumstances were inside that church. And as soon as we know more, we'll let you know too.

KAGAN: Very good. We will let you go and have more conversations with those folks on what is a very happy and relieving day for them. Carol Lin, reporting to us from Bethlehem.

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