Israel Says Troops Killed U.N. Aide
The United Nations (news - web sites) disputed the army's claim,
denying Palestinian gunmen were in the U.N. compound and saying the slain
official, Iain Hook, was armed only with a cell phone he was using to try
to evacuate U.N. staff.
The army released its preliminary findings into the Friday
gun battle in the Jenin refugee camp, saying Palestinian gunmen used the
U.N. compound as cover to fire at Israeli troops searching for a wanted
militant.
Iain Hook, a British senior manager of UNRWA, the U.N.
agency helping Palestinian refugees, was killed inside the compound � the
first senior U.N. official to die in over two years of Israeli-Palestinian
fighting.
The dispute over his death was likely to inflame
long-strained relations between Israel and the United Nations. While U.N.
resolutions paved the way for creating the Jewish state in 1948, relations
have been poisoned for much of the time since.
The army findings were released amid fresh violence in
which two Palestinian militants blew themselves up on an explosives-packed
boat off the Gaza Strip (news - web sites), injuring four Israeli soldiers
on a nearby navy patrol boat in a rare sea attack. The militant group
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.
Israel also pressed its occupation of the West Bank town
of Bethlehem, reoccupied Friday after a suicide bus bombing in Jerusalem
killed 11 people, including four children. Israeli troops demolished four
homes of militants, arrested 26 people, and searched the office of
Bethlehem's governor, witnesses said.
Israel Army Radio reported Saturday that an initial
investigation into Hook's death showed that an Israeli soldier shot him as
he came out of an alley from where Palestinian gunmen had been firing
earlier, mistaking a cell phone he was carrying for a hand grenade.
An army statement released late Saturday said two soldiers
fired at Hook inside the U.N. compound because he had "an object that
appeared to be a gun."
The statement said Palestinian gunmen had fired on Israeli
troops from inside the UNRWA compound and, on seven occasions, from an
adjacent alley.
The army said in two instances, the gunmen had used
civilians as human shields.
"In one of the incidents, a terrorist shot as he hid
behind a woman who held an UNRWA flag in her hand," the statement said.
The army said its troops held off firing back in that
instance, fearing civilians could be hurt, but shot at Hook after
determining he had what appeared to be a gun.
Paul McCann, a U.N. spokesman, said the army's claim that
gunmen were inside the compound was wrong.
"Our preliminary inquiry does not agree with the statement
that firing could have come from the UNRWA compound. It in fact is quite
clear from our inquiry so far that this report of firing from the compound
is totally incredible," he said.
Hook, he added, had been on his cell phone in the moments
before he was shot, trying to arrange for the evacuation of U.N. personnel
from the compound.
A U.N. official from New York was expected in Jenin on
Sunday to carry out an investigation for the world body, McCann said.
Meanwhile, Hook's body was expected to be transported to Jerusalem for an
autopsy before being returned to Britain, he said.
The United Nations also said Israeli soldiers had blocked
an ambulance from immediately getting to Hook and he died before reaching
the hospital. The army said Hook was evacuated as soon as possible.
In its statement, the army said it expressed sorrow over
Hook's death.
Late Saturday, the Palestinian leadership decided to award
Hook its highest medal, the Al Quds Sharif medal, or the Noble Jerusalem
medal, and declared him a "martyr" of the Palestinian people, Palestinian
officials said.
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites) also sent a letter of condolence
to Hook's family, the officials said.
Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (news - web sites) discussed Hook's death with
reporters Saturday, saying Palestinian gunmen had hidden behind the U.N.
compound "seeking to create more casualties."
During the funeral of an 11-year-old Palestinian boy also
killed in the Jenin clashes, some 2,000 mourners marched through the
refugee camp Saturday, carrying an empty coffin draped with a U.N. flag in
memorial to Hook.
They unfurled banners reading, "Israel killed Hook."
The boy, Mohammed Bilalu, was shot while throwing stones
at Israeli soldiers, who had entered the Jenin camp searching for a wanted
Islamic Jihad leader, witnesses said.
Palestinian Cabinet minister Saeb Erekat said the
Palestinian Authority (news - web sites) held the Israeli government
"fully responsible" for Hook's death.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military closed the Mediterranean
waters off Gaza, barring all Palestinian fishing, after Palestinian
militants detonated a boat full of explosives late Friday near an Israeli
patrol boat.
The Palestinian vessel had entered Israeli-controlled
waters off northern Gaza and was approached by an Israeli navy patrol,
which fired warning shots to force the boat to turn around, an army
statement said.
The boat exploded, killing two Palestinians on board. Four
Israeli soldiers on the patrol boat were injured, three of them moderately
and a fourth slightly, the army said.
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility, saying its boat
rammed the Israeli patrol boat, sinking it and an Israeli rescue boat
retrieved the four casualties. The army said the patrol boat was damaged
but made it back to shore.
Col. Danny Maoz, a naval commander in the Gaza Strip, said
a similar attempt was staged in November 2000 off the southern Gaza Strip.
In that incident, a lone suicide attacker detonated the explosives beside
an Israeli patrol boat, but no Israelis were injured, he said.
Meanwhile, Israel continued its hunt for 30 wanted
militants in and around Bethlehem, the hometown of the suicide bomber in
Thursday's Jerusalem bus attack.
On Saturday, Israeli forces demolished the homes of four
militants of the Al-Aqsa Brigades, linked to Arafat's Fatah (news - web sites) faction, bringing to six the
number of houses destroyed since Friday, witnesses said.
Troops also blasted open the door of the office of
Bethlehem Gov. Mohammad Madini and were seen carrying out computers and
boxes of papers, witnesses said. The governor was not inside at the time.
Military officials said troops searched the office and left.
With the incursion in Bethlehem, Israel has retaken
control of all Palestinian population centers in the West Bank except
Jericho, as it did during major military offensives in April and June.
