Bethlehem: Monastery set on fire

There was a major fire at the monastery of Mar Charbel in Bethlehem at the weekend. Many rooms were ablaze on Saturday and various parts of the building have been badly damaged. There were no reports of injuries.

In the aftermath of the fire, the governor and the mayor of Bethlehem, the chief of police, the national security director and the head of Intelligence, went and inspect the monastery accompanied by Mgr William Shomali, and a number of priests from Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahour.

A criminal investigation has been opened to determine the causes of this fire.

Since last June, restoration work has been underway at the site, after a 15-year closure of the monastery for administrative reasons. The Palestinian national fund, under the recommendation of president Mahmoud Abbas, has given the monastery 200,000 dollars for restoration. The covenant, which follows the Maronite Church in the Holy Land, was founded in 1983 and used to offer accommodation for pilgrims and teaching rooms for students of Bethlehem University.

Sobhy Makhoul, chancellor of the Maronite Patriarchate in Jerusalem, told AsiaNews that the fire that broke out over the weekend at St Charbel Maronite Monastery in Bethlehem was deliberately started. A spokesman said the motivation was criminal, not religious.