Bethlehem, West Bank ? Suspected Palestinian militants wanted by Israel began leaving the Church of the Nativity after daybreak today, marking the end of a 5 1/2-week standoff over the traditional birthplace of Jesus.

Under the deal, the first people emerging were 13 gunmen to be deported to Cyprus and then to European countries, officials said. They were to be followed by 26 people who were to be taken to Gaza and about 85 civilians, who were to be freed.

The first person to leave the church was Abdullah Daoud, the head of Palestinian intelligence in Bethlehem, one of the 13 who are to be deported. He emerged just before 7 a.m. (11 p.m. CDT).

He was stopped several times at an Israeli metal detector and had to take off his jacket before being cleared through.

Wearing a black and white checked Arab scarf around his neck and accompanied by two priests, he approached two Israeli soldiers, who talked to him briefly before directing him to a red and white Israeli bus.

The second man coming out was identified as Khaled Abu Nijmeh, also on the list of deportees.

The crisis began April 2, when more than 200 people fled into the church, one of Christianity’s holiest shrines, ahead of Israeli troops invading the biblical town. At first Israel insisted that the gunmen among them must surrender, but dropped that demand when the Palestinians agreed that 13 of the senior militants would be deported and others sent to Gaza.

Arduous negotiations and several near-deals characterized the effort to defuse the standoff until a breakthrough came Thursday with a complex deal to scatter the 13 Palestinian militants among several countries.

The arrangement reached with European negotiators clears the way for Israeli forces to withdraw from the last West Bank city they occupy, but does not spell an end to Palestinian-Israeli bloodshed. Even as the evacuation took place Friday morning, Israeli tanks stood poised outside the Gaza Strip early Friday ahead of an expected retaliatory attack for a suicide bombing that killed 15 Israelis.

Israel’s siege over Christ’s reputed birthplace was one of the focal points of its West Bank invasion, and ending it became an international cliffhanger of on-again, off-again breakthroughs.

On Thursday, a senior Palestinian official confirmed a new deal had been reached.

With Israel linking the 13 men to terrorism, finding a country willing to take them has been a major obstacle to ending the siege at one of the holiest sites in the Christian world.

The breakthrough came when Cypriot Foreign Minister Yiannakis Cassoulides said his country would temporarily take in the 13 Palestinians before they were flown to their final destinations.

A British military aircraft took off from an air base in Cyprus about 11 p.m. for Israel to pick up the men, said British officials in Cyprus, speaking on condition of anonymity. They said two Cypriot police were aboard to escort the Palestinians back.

The standoff seemed near an end Tuesday, when negotiations initially designated Italy as the host country for the entire group of 13. But the Italian government balked, saying it had not been consulted.

An Italian Foreign Ministry official said late Thursday that under the new deal that emerged, Italy and Spain would take some of the militants, while Austria, Greece, Luxembourg and Ireland would take the rest.

There was no indication that the Palestinians would face confinement in the host countries. The Italian official, speaking on condition of anonymity from Rome, 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 has been heavily involved in trying to end the standoff. Before the latest agreement was reached Thursday, Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi held phone discussions with Secretary of State Colin Powell as well as Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique, another Italian government official said.

A senior U.S. State Department official confirmed Powell’s conversation with Berlusconi and said Powell also had spoken with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou. The U.S. official said “we are hopeful” for a resolution.

Details of the conversations were not known, but within hours the agreement was announced by Italian and Israeli officials.

Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has come under strong criticism from other Palestinians for agreeing to let the men be deported, the first time a Palestinian leader has assented to such a punishment.

In a false alarm, buses pulled into Manger Square, presumably to transport those inside the church to their destinations. But hours later the talks broke down and the buses drove away empty.

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators accused each other of violating the terms of that arduously reached agreement. The Palestinians said Israel had refused at the last minute to implement the deal, and the Israelis said the Palestinians had made new, unacceptable demands.