Israeli Troops Blamed in U.N. Aide’s Death

JERUSALEM -- The Israeli army said Saturday that the preliminary results of an investigation into the West Bank killing of a U.N. aid worker had found that Israeli forces fired the shots after mistaking an object in the man’s hand for a gun.

Israeli radio stations reported that the relief worker was holding a cell phone.

Two soldiers spotted Iain Hook, an official with the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, during a heated gun battle in the Jenin refugee camp between armed Palestinians and Israeli forces, according to a statement from the Israel Defense Forces.

The statement said that at the time, the U.N. agency’s headquarters were being used by Palestinian gunmen to fire on Israeli forces. “The initial inquiry shows that two soldiers identified in the UNRWA headquarters, from which Palestinians fired at the IDF forces, a man with an object which resembles a pistol -- leading the force to fire in his direction and hitting him.”

Israeli forces had reoccupied most of the Palestinian towns in the West Bank early Friday in retaliation for a suicide bombing Thursday morning in Jerusalem that killed 11 people, including four children. It is the first wide-scale occupation since June and has increased the already escalating tensions in the region.

Army spokesmen say the soldiers are trying to hunt down 30 suspected terrorists and that the incident in Jenin came as Israeli soldiers were trying to force Abdullah Wahsh, a member of the extremist group Islamic Jihad, to surrender.

Palestinians say the incursions are having severe repercussions for the civilian population, especially in the Bethlehem area and in the Gaza Strip.

In Gaza, a Palestinian suicide bombing was foiled late Friday when a naval vessel in the buffer waters near the area intercepted a small fishing boat that apparently was headed for Israeli waters, the army said.

The Israeli crew spotted the fishing boat, which carried two men, at about 10:30 Friday night. The Israelis tried to contact the men and warned them to leave the area. When the fishing boat failed to respond to warning signals, the army fired at the vessel. Soon after, the boat exploded.

Both Palestinians died, and four Israelis suffered light to moderate injuries. Sea-based suicide attacks are relatively rare. Only one had previously occurred in the more than two years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, according to an IDF spokeswoman.

The episode was reminiscent of the attack, believed to have been coordinated by the Al Qaeda terrorist network, on the U.S. destroyer Cole off the coast of Yemen in 2000, in which a small boat rammed the military ship, killing 17 American sailors.

Israeli military officials, however, said they couldn’t tell whether the fishing boat was aiming to destroy the Israeli ship or was headed to attack southern Israeli beaches.

Islamic Jihad’s military wing, known as Al Quds, claimed responsibility for Friday’s attack in a statement released in Gaza. It said that the two men, Mohammed Almasri, 19, and Jamal Ismail, 21, both from Gaza, were the “martyrs” involved. They vowed to continue jihad, or holy war, against Israel until Israelis leave Palestinian territories and Palestinians reclaim their rights.

Retaliation was swift. Israel banned all Palestinian fishermen in Gaza from plying the coastal waters. About 3,000 men make their living from the sea and will lose their livelihood because of the ban, according to Palestinian sources.

Meanwhile, the army continued its intensive security sweep in the West Bank. Particularly targeted was Bethlehem; the suicide bomber responsible for Thursday’s bus attack came from the area.

Three more homes of Palestinian militants were destroyed in Bethlehem on Saturday, bringing the total to six. The home of Ibrahim Abayat, one of the militants who took refuge in the Church of the Nativity during a 39-day standoff with Israeli forces last spring, was damaged. Abayat has been sent into exile.

Although few Israeli forces could be seen on the street in Bethlehem on Saturday, the town was under a curfew. Shops, schools and businesses were closed.

Israeli forces entered the offices of Mohammed Madani, Bethlehem’s governor, breaking down the doors, damaging furniture and removing computers.

“They are targeting everything that is related to the sovereignty of the Palestinian Authority,” Madani said. “They are bringing down all the pictures of [Palestinian Authority President Yasser] Arafat, taking away the Palestinian flags and replacing them with Israeli ones.”

Bethlehem’s chief of police, Gen. Alaa Husni, charged that he and his officers had been stripped of everything they needed to do their job: cars, walkie-talkies, uniforms, fax machines. His officers were taken in for questioning but released.

“We had difficulties before, but we were functioning,” he said. “Now we cannot function at all.”

Israeli army sources did not comment on the accounts.