Monday, November 25, 2002

Split Deepens on Israeli Killing of U.N. Aide

A United Nations investigator arrived here today to inquire into the fatal shooting of a British United Nations worker by an Israeli soldier on Friday, as a dispute over the incident deepened.

The Israeli Army said that its soldiers had been responding to gunfire coming from a United Nations compound in the Jenin refugee camp, in the West Bank. But after an initial inquiry, the United Nations agency that administers the camp rejected that account as "incredibly incorrect."

Paul McCann, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said the compound, a fenced cluster of three trailers, was clearly marked as belonging to the United Nations.

"We know that we had control of it, there were no militants inside it, and there was absolutely no firing coming from inside it," said Mr. McCann, who visited the site today.

The aide worker who was killed, Iain John Hook, 54, was shot in the back, Mr. McCann said. Mr. Hook's two sons claimed his body today, he said.

The army said that while in pursuit of a wanted Palestinian, its troops had come under fire, and that Mr. Hook was holding something — perhaps a cellphone — that soldiers mistook for a pistol. United Nations officials have also accused the army of hindering an ambulance sent to evacuate Mr. Hook. The army has denied that accusation.

A 10-year-old boy was also shot dead by the army in Jenin on Friday, Palestinian officials said.

Mr. Hook was the first foreign citizen working for the United Nations to be killed in the two-year-long conflict here, Mr. McCann said. Two Palestinian employees of the refugee agency have also been killed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/25/international/middleeast/25MIDE.html

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