9: BEIT JALA

Beit Jala lies on the side of a small valley with the Jewish settlement of Gilo on the other bank. Since the beginning of the intifada a year ago, Palestinian militants had been shooting across the valley into Gilo, which they consider an illegal colony on their territory. The firing ended with the mid-August call for a ceasefire in advance of peace talk negotiations, but the shooting -- and some mortar attacks -- resumed two days ago after Palestinian leader Mustafa Zibri is killed in the nearby town of Ramallah.

Unlike other recent Israeli military actions in Palestinian territories, the troops plan to indefinitely take control of Beit Jala away from the Palestinian Authority. Dore Gold, an adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, tells the NY Times, "no nation could accept a situation by which its very capitol came under repeated fire, day in and day out -- not once, not twice, but dozens of times." Beit Jala is a suburb of Bethlehem, nearly five miles from Jerusalem. Sharon and other Israeli rightists claim Jerusalem should be their capitol, not Tel Aviv.

Residents of Beit Jala, mostly Christian and middle-class, are angered that their community has been used by militants, but unite with the Palestinians in denouncing the Israeli reoccupation. The NY Times quotes an angry Christian resident: "You're talking about a rifle facing a tank. It's not fair to compare." The Lutheran Bishop denounces the army seizure of the church, and particularly Israeli snipers shooting from church-compound windows. Correspondents for the Boston Globe report the considerable anger in the streets:

Palestinian rage was at a fever pitch in and around Beit Jala. It came from policemen, from youths on the eerily deserted streets of Bethlehem, and from women forced to walk miles to sell their produce at market because regular routes into their towns were closed.

"Damn the Arabs" who fail to support Palestinians and "damn the foreigners," shouted grandmotherly women carrying their loads over rocky paths in the broiling sun, near closed roads where buses no longer run. "God defeat the United States."

"May God damn Bush," cried Azizeh Danad, 60, as she walked home to a village near Bethlehem with her daughter and grandson after spending the day selling peas and grapes. "He is responsible."

Israeli troops also occupy the Aida refugee camp outside Beit Jala, where eight residents are injured.

During the army reoccupation of Beit Jala, Mohammed Samur, a 25 year-old Palestinian policeman is killed, and 16 Palestinians are reported injured. Palestinian gunfire towards Gilo continues through the night, and a 62-year-old Gilo resident is reported lightly wounded. After nearly a year of Palestinian shooting and firing of mortars across the valley at Gilo, no Israelis there have been killed, although more than a dozen have been injured.