November 21, 2002

Activities in Bethlehem

[Bethlehem, West Bank] I awoke before 5:00 this morning to the sounds of loud explosions and gunfire. Brief but bright flashes of light lit the valley near my apartment, south of the Church of the Nativity. Voices yelled through loudspeakers, but I had no idea what they were saying. The unmanned drone aircraft buzzed above the scene. When the sun came up I saw small clouds of smoke, but no major damage to the area where the noise had come from. With all that commotion, I expected piles of rubble in place of homes. When I was sure all was totally quiet, I visited the area to see what had happened. It was another Israeli invasion, of course. They had taken six men in their pre-dawn raid. The amplified voices that I heard were soldiers telling the men to come out of their homes. Residents said that the soldiers did little damage, usually just throwing sound grenades and shooting into the air to scare the community. It sure worked for me.

Two hours later I heard that a suicide bomber had hit a bus in Jerusalem. So far 11 dead and dozens injured. (How this helps Palestinian peace efforts, I will never know.) And the bomber was said to be someone from Hebron now living in Bethlehem. I'm not sure if these events are related or not. Just two days ago, all the soldiers in the area were telling me that they were expecting a suicide bomber from Bethlehem. Perhaps this was the one.

Read Sandra Olewine's version of the events on my newslist site:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BobsMgroup

Reports from the Israeli side said that if the bomber was from Bethlehem, we can expect to welcome some uninvited military personnel in the near future.

The morning's military activity happened around and to the back of the large building.
(View from my apartment roof.)

Some passed.

Soldiers had a few men stopped at El Hader

Going around the roadblock.

No much happening at the Bethlehem checkpoint, although one traveler told me of bulldozers moving into the Mar Elias parking lot just up the road.