"It's not a house with three hostages in the center of Tel Aviv that you can destroy or break into it." "But... it's just a matter of time." "I would prefer to die than to surrender." "I knew that my wife had taken the kids to Jerusalem." "And there was a bloody attack in the city." "The entire phone system collapsed." "I tried to call my wife and children and I couldn't make contact." "That can drive a man crazy." "You don't know what to think, what you'll find out." "Whether any of your family members were killed." "That's how people felt." "Terrorists blowing themselves up everywhere." "In your home, in your backyard, in a hotel, a cinema, a supermarket." "It was unbearable." "I felt that we must do something about this, any campaign that would reduce terrorist activity and minimize damage." "Not necessarily war, but to stop the terrorism." "This is our country." "We must be able to move freely in it, to feel safe." "This terrorism is directed by one man, the Palestinian chairman, Yasser Arafat." "Arafat is heading a terrorist coalition and operating a terrorism strategy." "The head of the Palestinian Authority is Israel's enemy and the enemy of the free world." "I have chosen to fight because I am human." "Because I want to live like a human." "I refuse to live like an animal." "I refuse to live broken." "I refuse to live under occupation." "This feeling will never change until we restore all our lands... and live in peace like the rest of the world." "As the soldiers arrived on Friday morning," "I saw them scrambling to be first to get their vests and weapons so as not to miss this fight to protect their home." "And so we went off to war for Operation Defensive Shield... with the intention of defending our home." "That's our guiding light." "Our orders were very clear." "To enter the Palestinian cities... apprehend the terrorists, kill anyone who fires at us and gets in the way of our job." "Destroy the terrorist infrastructure and hurt anyone trying to hurt our troops." "We attacked Bethlehem from several directions." "Once you attack from east to west on the three main streets... you reach the church, you've taken Bethlehem." "All of them were carrying weapons... and they had this idea they could drive the occupiers out of the country." "But they were still people." "And we believe that all people are created in God's image." "It's not a house with three hostages in the center of Tel Aviv that you can destroy or break into." "I have lived in Dheisheh refugee camp ever since I was born." "We were at home when it was invaded." "It was an intense assault from all the roads." "So there was no option but to flee to the church." "We thought it would be the safest place for us to flee to." "We knocked on the door of the church." "Father Ibrahim... opened it and let us in, offered us protection." "He closed the door and said, "Don't be afraid, you are safe now."" "The most important thing for them was to find somewhere safe." "The church was always the safest place during these times." "Over the years, it has always been the safest place." "Jihad's leg was very badly wounded." "He could have died." "We may never see our families again, but in the end, a freedom fighter must make a choice." "They passed around the walls with a microphone emitting high-pitched animal sounds to prevent anyone from sleep." "We made special noises in order to stress them out." "So they understand there's no playing games with us." "The terrorists who went to the hang out in the church are not children." "They had blood on their hands." "You might sleep for five minutes... then a sound bomb would be fired, then you'd jump out of bed." "I mean, the sound bombs were the most horrible tactics used." "Of course, when you hear a sound bomb, you'd think they'd come in, they'd stormed the church." "They were all scared." "Scared of prison." "Scared of the Israeli soldiers." "Scared that they would be sent back to prison." "After only two or three days, there was no more food left." "We'd pick leaves off a tree, light a fire, boil the leaves in water and drink it." "We craved anything that would fill our stomachs, anything to keep us going." "We knew that the terrorists would break." "How long can you be under siege?" "Another week, another two weeks?" "Ultimately, you vomit from your own smell." "The Israeli army has the technology to introduce a weapon that fires by remote control." "It was risky to collect leaves, and whenever someone announced that they were going out to bring us food, we knew that they might come back or they might not." "It works amazingly well." "It's intimidating." "If I were in a church and saw a sniper rifle moving like a robot overhead on a crane," "I wouldn't be able to breathe." "We could see on the cameras overhead who is a terrorist and who is a civilian." "You can tell by the movement of the terrorist trying not to be seen." "Especially if he's armed." "A terrorist who fears for his life, who killed innocent Israelis, knows that he's in our sights." "He behaves differently." "He can't help it." "You hear a shot." "A guy called Hassan, from Gaza, was shot." "He was shouting, "Please help me!" "For God's sake."" "He said a prayer while he was bleeding." "There was no alternative while you were there... but to watch what was happening in front of you." "Whenever I want to sleep or just sit on my own with my thoughts, the memories flood back to me." "All Israeli Forces..." "Nine men and two bodies will exit the church." "Hold your fire." "We were only small, of course, and the coffins were heavy because we'd made them out of wood and other stuff." "They should stand by the wall." "Lift their shirts." "You, first on the right, come closer." "Lift your shirt, please." "Turn around." "Tell them to stay where they are." " Everything okay?" " Yeah." "It's the best sight you could wish for." "Children, they're children." "Fouad?" "Welcome, Fouad." "How are you?" "The army jeep went inside the camp and delivered me to my front door." "I sat down at home." "My mom asked me straightaway what I wanted to eat." "Kunafa, strands of pastry with sugar, something like that." "Something sweet that's baked." "It came to mind... because when I was in the church, I thought about it a lot." "I used to eat it a lot when I was young." "So she made it and I ate it." "Pressure was really mounting." "There were clashes, deaths, in the last days." "Someone was killed or injured every day." "People would say," ""Why did we do that?" "Why do we have to sit?" "Why do we have to be here?" "We want to leave!"" "As fighters, inside the Church of the Nativity we felt guilty about the siege of our people." "There were 140,000 Palestinians under siege with us in Bethlehem." "Exile?" "We did not fight to be sent for exile." "We fought for a brighter future for us and for our children in Palestine." "In the end, it was a unanimous decision to leave the Nativity Church by accepting exile." "We accepted the exile so the siege would be lifted from the whole governorate of Bethlehem." "All their attempts during the 39 days to force us to surrender could not break this thing, and we remained patient and resilient, and we endured all the pain and suffering in the 39 days." "So we were proud." "Because I am Palestinian," "I am proud to be Palestinian..." "I didn't fight to end up exiled outside of my country." "I fought for the sake of Palestine." "My son Samid was born on May 22, 2002..." "The first day of my arrival in Ireland." "I have never seen him nor met him." "I hope one day I will see him and be able to hug him." "After 14 years, how do I see the situation?" "I see that it was just the perimeter of the church that was surrounded by tanks and soldiers and just the Palestinians inside held captive." "But now after 14 years," "I see the whole city is surrounded by a wall." "The whole city is surrounded by a wall."