Staying with a Palestinian family half-a-mile from Manger Square, 31-year-old Jo Bird said she witnessed gunfights and shelling.

Earlier this month, she joined about 100 Peace Now demonstrators on a march from Bethlehem to Beit Jala to deliver food and supplies to Palestinians.

En route, they were confronted by Israeli soldiers, an experience she recalled as “really scary” after her return home.

“Soldiers fired live ammunition at the ground, walls and people,” she said this week. A number of demonstrators had been injured.

The Jewish Socialist Group member — who said she wants to see “long-term security for both Israelis and Palestinians” — said that her visit had changed her preconceptions of both sides.

“I thought that the Israeli Army wouldn’t fire on us, but they did, and that the Palestinians would talk about the destruction of Israel.

“I did find hardened attitudes, but I was surprised that they weren’t more extreme, since most people I met were born in refugee camps.

“They said they wanted a two-state solution and to live with Israelis in peace. For them, the return of refu-gees and Jerusalem are secondary issues.”

The Co-operative Bank manager added that conditions under siege were “pretty poor. Travel is very restricted, food and water are limited and the economy is on hold.” She said that her parents had been supportive of her visit.

Another peace activist from Man-chester has remained in Israel to be at the bedside of his girlfriend, who he said had been shot in the stomach during the Beit Jala peace march.

Thirty-three-year-old rights worker Adam Jacobs said that, although his girlfriend had been released from hospital, she had six pieces of shrapnel inside her.

Mr Jacobs said he felt his Jewish-ness had given him “a keen sense of questioning injustice.”

Having been living with Palestin-ians, he described the refugee camps as “like ghettos.”

Mr Jacobs reported that, while some Palestinians had found it hard to accept his Jewishness, he had generally been taken aback by their hospitality.

“In spite of being treated like animals, they are welcoming, brave and generous. They are a bit like Yiddishe mamas.”