December 4, 2002	Wednesday	Ramazan 28,1423

TEL AVIV, Dec 3: A group of 64 UN workers based in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip issued a petition on Tuesday calling on Israel to stop what they said has been the harassment, beating and killing of United Nations staff.

“For two years, United Nations staff have been subject to escalating harassment and violence by Israel’s military, so that the protection supposed to be afforded by the blue letters of the UN is being steadily eroded,” said the petition, released in Gaza.

Asked about the statement, an Israeli military official said: “We reject the suggestion Israeli soldiers intentionally try to harass UN personnel. We respect the work of the United Nations, and that includes our commitment to their safety.”

The petition was issued two weeks after Israeli soldiers battling Palestinians in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin shot dead Iain Hook, a project director for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

Israel said the soldiers mistook the Briton for a guerilla, and the army opened an investigation.

In the petition, the signatories slammed what they perceived to be an attempt by Israel to claim the United Nations was somehow culpable for Hook’s killing.

“In these tragic circumstances, rather than easily uttered regrets, we expect the Israeli government take the necessary steps to stop the harassment, beating and killing of UN staff,” the petition said.

ROCKY RELATIONS: Relations between Israel and UN agencies have been rocky for decades.

In the current Palestinian uprising for statehood, UN officials have accused the army of firing on health clinics, schools, ambulances and other installations run by UN agencies.

The signatories of the petition said they were writing in their personal capacities.

They included citizens of the United States, Britain, Ireland, Germany, France, Australia, the Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Finland, Spain, Jordan, Switzerland, Italy, Canada, Tanzani, Luxembourg and Colombia.

KENYA ATTACK: Israeli military intelligence had advance warning that Al Qaeda operatives were preparing for a possible attack in Kenya before last week’s twin attacks in the port city of Mombasa, an Israeli official said on Tuesday.

But a senior military intelligence officer told a parliamentary committee on Monday that Israel had no specific information that Mombasa or Israelis vacationing there would be targeted, parliament spokesman Giora Pordes said.

Israel has said it suspected Al Qaeda was behind a suicide bombing last Thursday at an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa that killed 16 people.—Reuters