It's a holiday tradition for clergy to clean the Church of the Nativity between the celebrations of Christmas on December 25 and the Orthodox celebration in the first week of January.

The basilica is shared between the Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Armenian religious authorities and it is not uncommon for tensions to flare.

Wednesday morning, Greek Orthodox preists and Armenian monks were cleaning when one of them started fighting. Pretty soon 50-60 members of both clergies were exchanging blows.

Palestinean police quickly stepped in and intervened. The fight only lasted a couple of minutes.

A similar incident between the same two sects occured in 2007.