After captivity, talks on time at Nativity

Palestinian fighters freed last week from the Israeli siege of the Church of the Nativity are local heroes in the Gaza Strip. Speaking engag...

Palestinian fighters freed last week from the Israeli siege of the Church of the Nativity are local heroes in the Gaza Strip. Speaking engagements and audiences with well-wishers at beachfront hotels are a far cry from the long weeks under Israeli army siege in the Bethlehem church, where they ate lemon tree leaves as food ran out and hid behind columns during gunfights.

8216;8216;You are in our hearts. We are your family,8217;8217; said Mahmoudal-Habbash, who was among a stream of Palestinians who dropped in to visit some of the men on Thursday. 8216;8216;You are our heroes.8217;8217;

Israeli soldiers besieged the fourth-century Byzantine church after 200 Palestinians 8212; militants, police and civilians 8212; took refuge there from the Israelis. The army lifted the siege and left Bethlehem last week after the Palestinian Authority agreed 13 fighters in the shrine, wanted by Israel, would go into exile.

This week, European Union Foreign ministers endorsed a deal to resettle the 13, now held in Cyprus, in several EU states. Twenty-six others, considered by Israel to be less serious offenders, were sent to Gaza.

One was Mazen Hussein, a militant in the armed wing of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat8217;s Fatah faction and on the Bethlehem drug enforcement unit when he entered the church. He now sits in a hotel on the Mediterranean Sea, fielding invitations to give speeches in Gaza on the Palestinian uprising that erupted in September 2000.

8216;8216;When the call for the battle was made, we all became soldiers in the service of our people,8217;8217; said Hussein, freshly shaved of the beard he grew during 39 days holed up in the church. Palestinian police with assault rifles guarded the hotel entrance but did not interfere with the flow of visitors.

The freed men gave interviews to Palestinian satellite TV so their families in the West Bank could see they were well. Palestinian Authority and security officials vowed to prevent any Israeli attempt to harm the 26, who were given cash and promised jobs. 8216;8216;We will defend you by our might and by our naked chests,8217;8217; Major-General Abdel-Razek al-Majaydeh, Palestinian public security chief, told the men. Reuters