A United Nations worker was killed Friday, caught in cross-fire between Palestinian gunmen and Israeli troops in the northern West Bank, Israeli officials said. The United Nations has criticized the Israeli military for delaying an ambulance sent to rescue him.
Iain Hook, 50, a British national working for the UN Relief and Working Agency in Jenin died in hospital from wounds from tank-shell fragments, Palestinian hospital sources said. They said his work involved rebuilding homes in Jenin destroyed in Israeli-Palestinian clashes.
In a statement, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was "greatly disturbed by the fact that the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) refused immediate access for an ambulance which had been summoned by UNRWA to take Mr. Hook to hospital." The United Nations said the incident was being investigated and it was unclear whether the delay contributed to his death.
Hook had been working in his office near the Jenin refugee camp and walked into the middle of a gun battle as the Israelis moved in to arrest a top militant of the Islamic Jihad organization whom Israel says was responsible for a bus attack in which 14 people were killed.
In another incident in Jenin, an Irish woman volunteer welfare worker was injured as she tried to stop Palestinian children from throwing stones at the soldiers.
Earlier Friday in the West Bank, the Israeli military moved into Bethlehem in full force with tanks and armored vehicles. For second time this year the Israelis surrounded Bethlehem's Church of Nativity, built on what is traditionally regarded the site where Jesus was born, apparently to block Palestinian militants from seeking refuge in the church.
The Israeli action followed Thursday's suicide bomb attack on a bus in which 10 Israelis and a Romanian tourist and the suicide bomber died and more than 50 others were injured.
In a retaliatory action, Israeli troops blew up the home of the suicide bomber in a village near Bethlehem. Palestinian witnesses said troops evicted the family of Na'al Abu Helayel before destroying the building.
Abu Helayel had been identified by officials as the suicide bomber and a member of the Islamic militant group Hamas, which had claimed responsibility for the attack
The Irish volunteer is Caoimhe Butterly, 24. She told United Press International the Israelis fired live ammunition above the heads of children who were throwing stones. She said she yelled at the soldiers to stop. Several children fled but three continued throwing stones. Butterly said she went over to them when a tank opened fire. She was wounded in the leg.
A military source said he believed she, too, was caught in cross fire. Earlier Friday soldiers detained her for two hours after finding her in a closed military zone, she said.
Earlier this year, the Israeli siege of the Church of the Nativity has captured world attention and prompted the intervention of the Vatican to protect one of Christianity's most important shrines.
More than 100 Palestinians, many of them militants, had taken refuge in the church when the Israeli army carried out an action called Defensive Shield in West Bank towns, including Bethlehem, seeking to arrest known Palestinian fighters.
The stand-off was resolved after about 40 days following an agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians that involved the deportation of 13 militants to several European countries and of about 25 other militants to the Gaza Strip. Others in the church were released.
The deal also called for a gradual Israeli army pullout from all the West Bank towns and villages occupied by the Israeli army since the intifada began more than two years ago.
After Bethlehem the Israeli army then quit Hebron, but further progress was halted when Palestinian suicide bomb attacks resumed.
(Saud Abu Ramadan reported from Gaza, Joshua Brilliant from Tel Aviv, Israel.)
