Bethlehem, West Bank ? A tense standoff between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen at the Church of the Nativity ended after 39 days Friday, with 13 suspected militants flown into European exile and 26 released into the Gaza Strip.

One-by-one, the gunmen walked through the low-slung Gate of Humility, the basilica’s main door, into the hazy sunlight of Manger Square. Some waved or flashed victory signs, and one man briefly dropped to the ground, kneeling in a Muslim prayer pose. Two men were carried out on stretchers.

Israeli police in riot gear later entered the church to forcefully remove 10 foreign activists who had refused to leave the sanctuary with the others. The activists, some from the United States and Britain, came out under police escort flashing V-signs to bystanders in the areas.

Friday’s deal ended a week of cliffhanger negotiations and set the stage for an Israeli troop withdrawal from biblical Bethlehem. But the activists were holding up the pullout for several when they refused to depart the church.

The activists had sneaked into the church on May 2 in a show of solidarity with the Palestinians. Israel had said it would not leave the city, where residents had been kept under round-the-clock curfews for more than five weeks, until the church had been emptied.

The gunmen, who emerged earlier, were briefly questioned by the Israeli army at a nearby military base. Thirteen were then driven to Israel’s international airport near Tel Aviv and flown to Cyprus, a temporary stop from where they were to be sent to various European countries. Another 26 were driven in two buses to the Gaza Strip, under U.S. escort.

Seven-three Palestinian civilians and policemen not wanted by Israel were released.

U.S. personnel removed weapons from the church as Israeli soldiers guarded the main door and clergy looked on. The Americans put rods down the barrels to check for ammunition, tagged the weapons and placed them in American vehicles.

The standoff began on April 2, as more than 200 Palestinians, including wanted militants, policemen and civilians, ran into the church fleeing advancing Israeli troops. At the time, Israel entered Bethlehem as part of a large-scale military operation in the West Bank aimed at rooting out militants suspected of involvement in a wave of suicide attacks that claimed the lives of dozens of Israelis.

Among the 13 deportees were nine members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a militia linked to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement, and three members of the Islamic militant Hamas group. The 13th is Abdullah Daoud, the Palestinian intelligence chief in Bethlehem.

Arafat came under scathing criticism from Fatah and Hamas for approving the deportations _ a first in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel has expelled hundreds of Palestinian activists since the 1967 Mideast war, but always in a unilateral move.

Arafat’s senior adviser, Nabil Abu Rdeneh, defended the Palestinian leader against the accusations Friday, saying he had made the best possible deal. “President Arafat personally stressed that no Palestinian was to be turned over the Israeli government … and this is what happened,” Abu Rdeneh said.

Israeli officials have also come under fire at home for allowing the gunmen to slip away. Raanan Gissin, an adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, insisted that justice had been served. “I think we achieved all our goals and the innocent people, the clergy and the priests who were held there were released intact,” Gissin told AP.

But priests have said they remained inside voluntarily own free will in order to protect the shrine. There was only minor damage to the church, including bullet holes in a 12th century fresco, while several rooms in other buildings were burned in two fires triggered by the fighting, and several windows were shot out.

Shortly after noon Friday, 26 militiamen arrived in Gaza City, and were given a raucuous welcome, with crowds lining the streets and waving at the militiamen riding in two buses. Some of the gunmen fired into the air from bus windows.

“We agreed to come to Gaza in order to end the humanitarian siege on our people in Bethlehem and, God willing, we will win and we will liberate our land,” said one of the militiamen, Mohammed Hamedin, 29, from Bethlehem.

Palestinian began emerging from the church shortly before 7 a.m. (0400 GMT) Friday. The first was Daoud, the intelligence chief and the most senior in the group.

Daoud had to take off his jacket before being cleared through two metal detectors on Manger Square. Wearing a black-and-white checkered Arab scarf around his neck and accompanied by two priests, he approached two Israeli soldiers, who briefly questioned him before escorting him to a nearby bus.

Another deportee, militiaman Jihad Jaara, was carried out on a stretcher, with a bandage on his right leg. He was taken to an ambulance.

Some of the men waved to Palestinian civilians watching the scene from nearby rooftops. Several women shouted to them.

A small group of Jewish settlers living near the military base where the Palestinians were questioned tried to block the buses by sitting in the middle of the road. After soldiers dragged them away, one woman protester tried to hurl herself at one of the buses, but she was not hurt.

The deportees were driven to Ben Gurion International Airport and from there flown to Cyprus. Upon arrival, the men were driven in a heavily armored convoy to a hotel in Larnaca. From Cyprus, they would continue on Italy, Spain, Austria, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg and possibly Canada, according to EU officials.

There was no indication that the Palestinians would face confinement in the host countries. An Italian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the details of the exile would be worked out at a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday.

The United States, the Vatican and EU officials were heavily involved in negotiations to end the standoff.

The main sticking point in recent days had been finding a host country for the 13 top wanted men. Italy balked at taking in all of the men but a breakthrough came when Cypriot Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides said his country would temporarily take them until they were flown to final destinations.