VARIOUS: ISRAELI TROOPS FAN ACROSS BETHLEHEM AFTER A PALESTINIAN SUICIDE BOMBER KILLED 11 PEOPLE ON BOARD A BUS

Record ID: 645611

  • Title: VARIOUS: ISRAELI TROOPS FAN ACROSS BETHLEHEM AFTER A PALESTINIAN SUICIDE BOMBER KILLED 11 PEOPLE ON BOARD A BUS
  • Date: 23rd November 2002
  • Summary: MV INJURED INTERNATIONAL RELIEF WORKER BEING STRETCHERED AWAY; MV OTHER INJURED PEOPLE ON STRETCHERS BEING TENDED TO; MV IRISH RELIEIF WORKER CAOIMH BUTTERLY ON STRETCHER (3 SHOTS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) INTERNATIONAL (IRISH) RELIEF WORKER CAOIMHE BUTTERLY "I was arrested for two hours. When released I left the area and moved on to antoher area, I was arrested with two Reuters journalists, moved on to another area. And there were clashes going on between stone-throwing children and fully armed Israeli occuption force soldiers. They had just killed a nine-year-old and had shot three others, one is severly brain-damaged. The tank had seen me very clearly, it opened fire and I was hit at close range." (U3) JERUSALEM (NOVEMBER 22, 2002) (REUTERS) SLV PEOPLE AT SITE OF EXPLOSION; SCU WOMAN CRYING; SLV SIGN ON BUS STATION SAYING: "Death to Arabs"; MV MAN PLACING CANDLE AT BUS STATION (5 SHOTS) MV SCHOOL OF STUDENTS WOUNDED IN BLAST WHICH KILLED ELEVEN PEOPLE (SOUNDBITE) (English) MORAN, STUDENT SAYING "I am afraid to go to school. It's very weird. Adoma was in my class and it's sad. It's scary and it's sad." SLV STUDENTS AT SCHOOL WALKING (W5) GILO, WEST BANK (NOVEMBER 22, 2002) (REUTERS) MV ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER ARIEL SHARON STANDING IN GILO, OVERLOOKING PALESTINIAN TOWN OF BEIT JALA MV SHARON LOOKING AT PALESTINIAN AREA GV PAN AREA (3 SHOTS) (SOUNDBITE) (Hebrew) SHARON SAYING "I wish to emphasise that no-one (involved in militant activities) will be immune from our serious punitive actions." (W4) RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (NOVEMBER 22, 2002) (REUTERS) MV PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT YASSER ARAFAT WALKING IN COMPOUND SLV PALESTINIAN FLAG (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ARAFAT SAYING "This military escalation is in violation of all the international agreements and international laws." (W5) GAZA (NOVEMBER 22, 2002) (REUTERS) SLV HUNDREDS OF PALESTINIAN MEN CARRYING FLAGS WALKING IN STREET; HUNDREDS OF HAMAS SUPPORTERS RAISING ONE FINGER ABOVE THEIR HEADS AND CHANTING IN ARABIC "THERE IS ONLY ONE GOD, ALLAH" (3 SHOTS)
  • Embargoed: 8th December 2002 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JENIN, BETHLEHEM, GILO, AL -KHADER, RAMALLAH, WEST BANK / JERUSALEM / KHAN YOUNIS, GAZA AND GAZA CITY
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: Crime,Conflict,General,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA2VPEKUS1BUHKH6V0UET8O86E1
  • Story Text: Israeli troops have fanned across Bethlehem after a
    Palestinian suicide bomber from the West Bank city killed 11
    people in the bombing of a crowded Jerusalem bus.

    Later in the day, a senior official working for a United
    Nations relief agency has been shot dead in a refugee camp in
    the northern West Bank city of Jenin.

    A senior official working for a United Nations relief
    agency was shot dead in a refugee camp in the northern West
    Bank city of Jenin on Friday (November 22, 2002).

    The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)
    confirmed an international staff member had been killed.

    Details were sketchy, but Israeli military sources said there
    had been a gunbattle in the area.

    The British Foreign Office and UNRWA said the official was
    a British national, but a Reuters cameraman who saw the body
    said his identity card showed his nationality as Irish.

    UNRWA spokesman Rene Aquarone identified the dead man as
    Ian Hook, who had been leading UNRWA's work on rebuilding the
    Jenin refugee camp, which was virtually destroyed during an
    Israeli military incursion earlier this year.

    One UNRWA source said he understood the man was hit by a
    stray bullet while sitting in a caravan in the agency's
    compound.

    There was heavy gunfire in the refugee camp on Friday
    during an Israeli military operation to seize an Islamic Jihad
    militant behind a suicide bombing in October which killed 14
    people.

    An injured international relief worker reported about
    clashes in Jenin and spoke of injured and dead.

    Also she accused the soldiers to fire deliberatly.

    "The tank had seen me very clearly, it opened fire and I
    was hit at close range."
    At the scene of Thursday's (November 21) bus bombing
    emotions were high. People placed flowers and candles.

    One girl expressed how many students feel: "I am afraid to
    go to school. It's very weird. Adoma was in my class and it's
    sad. It's scary and it's sad."
    Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has vowed to punish
    Palestinians responsible for militant activities, while the
    militant Palestinian group Hamas has defended the tactic of
    suicide bombings.

    "I wish to emphasise that no-one (involved in militant
    activities) will be immune from our serious punitive actions."
    Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said that the latest
    raid was "in violation of all the international agreements
    and international laws."
    Israeli soldiers were sealing off the Church of the
    Nativity in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, revered as the
    birthplace of Jesus, after re-entering the West Bank city on
    Friday (November 22).

    Troops surrounded a refugee camp adjacent to Bethlehem
    shortly before dawn where they carried out house-to-house
    searches for militants. Palestinian residents said nine people
    belonging to various militant factions were arrested.

    The raid followed a bus bombing, which killed 11 people
    including two 13-year-old schoolgirls and an eight-year-old
    boy and his grandmother.

    In the raid, the Israeli army destroyed the house of
    23-year-old Nael Abu Hilayel in Bethlehem, who blew himself up
    on the bus.

    Bethlehem was declared a closed military zone before the
    operation was launched. A curfew was ordered on Bethlehem-area
    residents as armoured personnel carriers and jeeps rumbled
    into the city and troops commandeered a seven-storey building.

    In Gaza, Palestinian security sources said a police
    officer was killed by a tank shell near the Jewish settlement
    of Netzarim. The army said the dead man had been in a group of
    armed "terrorists" attempting to infiltrate the settlement.

    At least 1,674 Palestinians and 650 Israelis have been
    killed since the uprising broke out in September 2000 after
    peace talks stalled.
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