U.N. Accuses Israel Over Aid Worker's Death

23/11/2002| IslamWeb

HIGHLIGHTSOccupation Troops Arrest Scores of Alleged Palestinian Resistance Men in the West Bank & Gaza|| Occupation Army Demolishes House of Bomber Relatives in Bethlehem|| Arafat Reissues Call for "Immediate Cessation of Attacks against Israeli Civilians|| STORY: The death of a senior United Nations relief official in an Israeli-Palestinian gun battle drew U.N. accusations that Israeli occupation forces delayed an ambulance summoned to evacuate the Briton after he was shot.

While the U.N. focused its attention on the incident in Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank, Israel kept a tight grip on Bethlehem, reoccupied Friday after a Palestinian bombing killed 11 people on a bus.

The latest surges in Israeli-Palestinian confrontations come at a time when the United States is keen to see calm in the region so it can woo Arab support for a possible war on Iraq. Palestinians launched an uprising two years ago for an independent state.

Washington used to oppose Israeli incursions into West Bank towns but signaled again Friday that its attitude has gradually shifted over the months toward qualified acceptance.

Iain Hook, manager of the Jenin camp rehabilitation project run by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), was hit by bullets that tore into his trailer in a U.N. compound while Israeli occupation soldiers and Palestinian resistance men exchanged fire nearby.

Israel and the United Nations said it was unclear who fired the shots that killed Hook, 54. A Palestinian doctor in Jenin hospital said bullets taken from his body were of a type used by the Israeli occupation army.

At U.N. headquarters in New York, a spokesman said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was "very disturbed by the fact that the Israeli Defense Forces refused immediate access for an ambulance which had been summoned by UNRWA" to evacuate Hook.

Hook had been leading UNRWA's work on rebuilding the refugee camp, which was heavily damaged during an Israeli occupation army sweep for resistance activists in April following bombings in Israel.

A U.N. report issued four months ago strongly criticized Israeli occupation forces for preventing emergency medical and aid workers from gaining access to Palestinians during the April assault.

OCCUPATION TROOPS ARREST ALLEGED PALESTEINIAN RESISTANCE MEN

Israeli occupation troops raided the camp to detain a wanted resistance activist accused of being behind a bombing in October that killed 14 people. They said he was a member of the Islamic Jihad group.

Israeli armor rumbled into Bethlehem in the West Bank early Friday and took up positions across the city in response to Thursday's bombing.

Occupation soldiers detained alleged resistance men and sealed off the Church of the Nativity, revered as the birthplace of Jesus, to prevent resistance men taking refuge in the shrine as they did during the occupation army invasion of Bethlehem in April.

OCCUPATION TROOPS DEMOLISH HOUSE OF BOMBER RELATIVES

Near Bethlehem, the army blew up the home of relatives of the 23-year-old bomber behind Thursday's bus attack. It also destroyed the house of a so-called wanted Islamic Jihad resistance man in the city and the Gaza homes of two members of the resistance group Hamas.

Occupation troops rounded up about 20 suspects in Bethlehem and 16 people elsewhere in the West Bank, most of them members of Hamas, which claimed responsibility for the bus attack.

ARAFAT REISSUES CALL FOR " IMMEDIATE AND COMPLETE CESSATION" OF ATTACKS ON ISRAELI CIVILIANS

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat convened the Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee in the West Bank city of Ramallah Friday and reissued a call for an "immediate and complete cessation" of attacks on Israeli civilians.

Such calls in the past have failed to impress Israeli leaders, who have noted they did not include pledges to stop strikes on Jewish settlers living on occupied land Palestinians want for a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The settlements are illegal under international law.

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinian youths confront an Israeli tank during clashes in the West Bank city of Jenin on November 22, 2002. (Re