British UN relief worker shot dead in Jenin refugee camp
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Your support makes all the difference.A British relief worker with the United Nations was shot dead inside the Jenin refugee camp yesterday.
Iain Hook, from Felixstowe, died after he was hit in the abdomen by a bullet while trying to evacuate UN workers after gunfire broke out around their compound.
The UN agency for which Mr Hook worked said Israeli soldiers had blocked an ambulance trying to reach Mr Hook, delaying its arrival. And there were serious questions over why the Israeli army started a military operation close to a clearly marked UN compound without first evacuating the workers.
It was not clear whether the bullet that killed Mr Hook was fired by an Israeli or a Palestinian. But there were signs the Israeli army allowed a situation to develop that put Mr Hook's life in danger.
Mr Hook, 54, worked for Unrwa, a UN agency that provides humanitarian assistance to Palestinian refugees. He was in Jenin supervising the rebuilding of the area of more than 100 civilian homes that were levelled by Israeli army bulldozers during the reoccupation of Jenin in April.
Israeli soldiers surrounded a house next to the compound and demanded the surrender of a wanted Palestinian militant, Abdullah Wahsh.
There had already been gunfire when Mr Hook was killed – minutes before he died, he was on the phone to UN colleagues, trying to organise the evacuation of his staff.
UN workers who were speaking with Mr Hook said he handed the phone to a colleague, and that a few minutes later they were told he had been shot. Palestinian witnesses claimed Mr Hook was shot by an Israeli sniper. The Israeli army said there were "massive exchanges" of fire at the time and that it was not clear who fired the bullet.
The local hospital director said the bullet was a type used by the Israeli army – but Palestinian militants are known to have bought Israeli ammunition on the black market.
It seems Mr Hook became the victim of an Israeli policy that has been internationally condemned: the blocking of access to ambulances, a breach of the Geneva Conventions.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said the army sent an ambulance to Mr Hook as quickly as possible. That was not true, according to the UN. Sami Mshasha, a spokesman for Unrwa, said Israeli soldiers blocked the ambulance. It was not clear whether he would have lived if it got there sooner.
The compound was clearly marked with a UN flag and signs. Both the Israeli army and the Palestinian militants would have known it was there. "That is the main source of the outrage and anger," Mr Mshasha said yesterday.
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