U.N. relief worker Iain Hook, who was killed Friday, was shot in the back by Israeli soldiers at a time when there were no military activities going on and only U.N. staff inside the building, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency said yesterday.

UNRWA said that during the hours before he was shot, Hook "became aware that some armed men were attempting to gain entry to the UNRWA compound in Jenin."  Hook approached them and told them that they were endangering his staff and jeopardizing the neutrality of the U.N. site, and the militants then left the area, according to UNRWA's statement.  "At no time did they gain access to the compound," the agency stressed.

Hook was organizing the compound's evacuation when he was shot, after which Israeli forces prevented an ambulance from reaching him for some time.  A spokesman for UNRWA said this revealed a lack of respect -- almost a disdain -- for the international legal framework under which UNRWA and other organizations render humanitarian assistance (U.N. release, Nov. 26).

The tape of a phone call from Hook to an Israeli officer minutes before he was fatally shot, saying Palestinians were trying to break into the compound, was also released yesterday.  Captain Peter Lerner, the military's liaison with international groups, said the recording supports Israel's assertion that Palestinian gunmen had entered the compound, although "this does not prove that we are innocent," he said (Mark Lavie, Associated Press/Nando Times, Nov. 26).

UNRWA protested to the Israeli Defense Forces about the treatment of one of the agency's international staff members and her family, who it said were subject to degrading searches and unjustified detention in Bethlehem last week.  Up to 30 heavily armed Israeli troops surrounded the home of UNRWA's field legal officer Allegra Pacheco Friday, holding her at gunpoint for two hours while searching her home. 

Pacheco's husband, Abed Al-Ahmar, was taken into custody and an order was issued detaining him for 11 days.  UNRWA has requested his release, saying he is being held without just cause.  "An armed raid on a staff member's home and degrading treatment of her and her spouse is disruptive of her ability to carry out her official function," UNRWA said in a statement.  "This is completely contrary to the understanding made by the government of Israel to facilitate the work of the agency."

UNRWA added that Israeli authorities are holding 23 of its Palestinian staff members in the West Bank, all but three without charge.  UNRWA has requested an explanation for each arrest, but has received no reply and has been refused access to those being held (U.N. release II, Nov. 26).  "Abed's arrest is a clear example of the Israeli policy of collective punishment," said Pacheco, a U.S. citizen (Margot Dudkevitch, Jerusalem Post, Nov. 27).

In other news, a house in the Jenin refugee camp exploded yesterday, killing two suspected high-level Palestinian militants, the New York Times reports.  Israeli sources said its forces had not fired on the house, but Palestinians said they believed it was destroyed by a missile fired by Israeli forces.  After the two men -- identified as Ala Sabaar and Aimad Nasharta, both on Israeli's "most wanted" list -- were pulled from the rubble, soldiers demolished what remained of the house.  The military said today that it had shot an armed Palestinian yesterday near the Rafah Yan settlement (Ian Fisher, New York Times, Nov. 27).

Israeli troops also shot dead early today a Palestinian as he was announcing the beginning of the day's Ramadan fast in a refugee camp in the West Bank.  Military sources told Israel Radio that Jihad a-Natour had violated the curfew imposed on the camp (Amos Harel, Ha'aretz, Nov. 27).

AP reported today that since Sept. 29, 2000, after U.S.-brokered peace talks collapsed, 1,934 persons on the Palestinian side and 678 on the Israeli side died as of Monday.  Many were children -- 265 of the Palestinians and 71 of the Israelis. 

While Israel's Foreign Ministry says no more than 45 percent of the Palestinian casualties of the conflict were "noncombatants," one Palestinian group says 85 percent were "civilians."  There is little dispute, however, that most Israeli casualties were civilians, AP reports, with about 45 percent killed in suicide bombings (Jason Keyser, AP/Washington Times, Nov. 27).

Meanwhile, as Israel prepares for tomorrow's Likud primary election to choose the party's prime ministerial candidate for the Jan. 28 elections, Ha'aretz reports that current Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has widened his lead to 24 percentage points over Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Yossi Verter, Ha'aretz, Nov. 27).

Sharon's support for Jewish settlements was a major factor in the collapse this month of his coalition government, with the center-left Labor Party saying that funding for the more than 200,000 people living in 146 settlements comes at the expense of more needy cities and towns in Israel (Peter Hermann, Baltimore Sun, Nov. 27).