Israeli Army Says Troops Killed UN Official

Israel willing to investiage and to assume blame when a mistake is made. And why were Israeli troops in the area?

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli army admitted its forces killed a U.N. official, saying they mistook an object he was holding in his hand for a gun during a heated battle with Palestinian gunmen in the Jenin refugee camp.

Israel's forces Sunday also kept their grip tight on Bethlehem, reoccupied on Friday and placed under curfew after a Palestinian suicide bombing killed 11 people on a Jerusalem bus.

The army said it had detained three would-be suicide bombers and another 28 wanted Palestinians in Bethlehem since the start of the operation in the West Bank city.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon appeared unlikely to order any relaxation of the clampdown in Bethlehem ahead of a leadership election on Thursday in his right-wing Likud party, where he is being challenged by hawkish Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel, battling a two-year-old Palestinian uprising for statehood, holds a general election on January 28.

Iain Hook, manager of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), was killed during a gun battle on Friday which erupted near the agency compound during an Israeli raid to arrest an Islamic militant in the Jenin camp.

Israeli radio stations said the 54-year-old Briton was holding a mobile telephone in his hand as he moved through the open-air compound. An UNRWA spokesman said Hook was trying to evacuate his staff and nearby civilians to safety.

"He had been making requests with the Israelis to call a cease-fire to allow our staff and some vulnerable civilians living nearby to be evacuated," said the spokesman, Paul McCann.

The army said Palestinian gunmen were firing at troops
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