BETHLEHEM, West Bank - The Palestinian bell ringer at the church built above the spot revered as Jesus' birthplace was shot and killed yesterday while walking to the basilica from his nearby home.

Samir Ibrahim Salman, a 45-year-old Palestinian Christian, was shot just a few steps from the Church of the Nativity during gun battles between Palestinians holed up inside the church and Israeli troops outside, witnesses said.

Salman, who also cleaned the church and prayed there each day, was hit once in the chest, said Peter Koumry, director of the nearby Beit Jalla Hospital. The source of the fire that killed Salman was not known.

Armed Palestinians holed up inside the church said yesterday that Israeli troops blew open a back door leading into a small courtyard next to the church and fired inside, wounding three people. The Israeli military denied the claim.

Mazen Hassan, a Palestinian policeman in the church, said he and other armed men were close to the metal door when it was blown open and shots were fired, wounding the people. An Associated Press reporter speaking to Hassan by phone could hear the sound of heavy shooting in the background. Hassan said Palestinians were not returning fire.

However, Lt. Col. Olivier Rafowicz, an Israeli army spokesman, denied soldiers moved into the church compound. Other military officials said there was shooting in nearby Manger Square, and that troops were pursuing gunmen.

On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said the shrine, one of Christianity's holiest, was off-limits to Israeli forces.

The Israeli military prevented reporters from reaching the church to assess the rival claims.

Rafowicz said Israel has been offering safe passage out of the church for anyone wishing it, and that Palestinian officials holed up inside "are preventing the people from leaving."

Before dawn yesterday, Israeli soldiers surrounding the church built over Jesus' traditional birth grotto had used loudspeakers to call on some 240 Palestinian police officers and militiamen hiding inside the massive stone walls to surrender.

No one answered the call.

The standoff began Tuesday, when the fighters, who had been engaged in heavy gun battles with advancing Israeli troops for hours, dashed a few dangerous steps from the Palace Hotel to the Church of the Nativity.

An army video released yesterday showed the gunmen running a dozen at a time from the nearby hotel, their heavy footfalls splashing puddles in the cobblestone path under a slashing rain. "One at a time," shouted one of the men. Wearing military vests and boots and carrying rifles, they ran as another turned and provided cover, wildly firing an assault rifle.

Inside the church, nuns and priests, among about 60 members of the clergy there, have attended to 10 wounded gunmen and tried to come up with blankets.