December 1, 2001

Jenin students, hoping to head home tonight, will stay in the village.

Early this afternoon, about 30 Israeli tanks entered Jenin. But no one at the school got word in time to get the busses home early, so they headed back as usual at 1:30. They were refused entry to Jenin, so Abuna Aktham and the Vice-Principal headed off to see if they could get the kids home. The buses re-approached the tanks, and as Abuna Aktham stepped down from the bus to speak with the soldiers, they fired several shots. Meant to be warning shots, they didn't hit the bus, but they certainly did an effective job of terrorizing the children who all hit the floor and screamed (of course). The collective wisdom was not to try and re-enter Jenin, but to bring the children back to Zababdeh and re-group. By the time they arrived at the church (about three and a half hours after they left), dozens of families from Zababdeh and Qabatia met them to bring kids into their homes for the night.

Marthame had planned to go to Nablus tomorrow to worship at the Melkite Church (word came earlier today that the road to Nablus was open for a while), but that all went down the drain about the same time as stuff hit the fan in Jenin.

Meanwhile, we were putting the finishing touches on our latest update. No sooner had we sent the send button that we turned on the TV to see the late-night suicide bombings in Jerusalem. It's going to be a long, sad, frustrating week.