Dozens of Palestinian militants have left Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity under a European-brokered deal to end a five-week standoff there.
The first ones to leave the church were 13 militants on Israel's most-wanted list. They boarded a bus taking them to Israel's Ben-Gurion airport where a British military aircraft is due to fly them to Cyprus, the first stop in their exile.
The agreement reached overnight after several false starts mandates the 13 militants to be flown to Cyprus and later transferred to third countries.
Another 26 Palestinian men who had been inside the church are to be sent to the Gaza Strip, and more than 100 clerics, foreign peace activists and Palestinian security men who had remained inside are to be set free.
The deal appeared to pave the way for Israeli forces to withdraw from Bethlehem, the last city still occupied after a month-long offensive across the West Bank.
The breakthrough in deal-making to end the siege of the Church of the Nativity suddenly emerged with the plan to take the militants first to Cyprus where diplomats said the Palestinians would be put up under guard at a hotel, possibly in Larnaca, a popular coastal resort.
European diplomatic sources said Italy, Spain and other countries were willing to take some of the militants, who are wanted by Israel for alleged complicity in suicide attacks that have killed scores of Israelis during a 19-month-old Palestinian uprising.
EU diplomats said the final destinations of the 13 gunmen may be finalised only when EU foreign ministers hold a regular meeting in Brussels on Monday.
An initial deal was reached on Tuesday but it fell through after Rome complained it was kept in the dark about plans to transfer the 13 to Italy.