The attackers were evacuated from the church: a mentally unstable couple. Another person was arrested along with them, and it seems a fourth man escaped before the police arrived. There were brawls outside the basilica.
Nazareth (AsiaNews) Unrest in Israel has followed an incident in the Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth: a couple entered the church this afternoon and let off firecrackers. Police managed to evacuate the couple later. Religious motives are excluded at the moment. The first hypothesis offered by Shin Bet, the Israeli security service, excluded that the Israeli extreme right was involved in the attack. But the Israeli government is nonetheless concerned and embarrassed about what the international community will make of the incident: protecting religious sites is Israel's job.
The incident took place at 5pm local time in the lower church, while the first Friday of Lent was being celebrated in the upper church. The spouses, known to the police because of their past and held to be mentally unstable, were injured in the blast. They were not alone, but as yet there is no official news about the exact number and identity of the other assailants. There is talk of a third man who was arrested and a fourth who escaped before the arrival of the police.
On hearing the news, hundreds of people rushed outside the Basilica to protest, clashing with police. Local sources said the crowd could have lynched the assailants.
At around 8pm, the police managed to sneak the assailants out of the church, while trying at the same time to disperse the crowd.
According to the Israeli media, the Havivi couple is behind the incident. Channel 10 reported that the man, Haim Eliahu Havivi, was the protagonist, several years ago, of a similar provocative act in the Basilica of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Then, he had been prompted by domestic problems. The man, an Israeli, is married to a woman of Polish citizenship, who is not Israeli. The Havivis had gone to Ramallah, to the then president Yasser Arafat, to ask for "political asylum", because they were convinced they were being persecuted by the Israeli judicial system.