BETHLEHEM, Nov 22: Israeli forces took over Bethlehem on Friday after a suicide bomber killed 11 people on a bus, and an British UN worker was killed in the West Bank city of Jenin.

London said it would press for a full investigation into the death of the British official who was shot on Friday in a Palestinian camp during an Israeli raid.

Palestinian doctors said initial reports suggested the man was in his office when he was hit by gunfire after a gunbattle broke out between Israeli troops and Palestinians in Jenin refugee camp.

A cameraman saw the dead body of the man, described by doctors as the senior representative of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Jenin. Officials from the agency, whose main headquarters is in the Gaza Strip, confirmed that an international staff member had been shot dead.

The death is likely to intensify international pressure on Israel and the Palestinians to end two years of conflict.

Also in Jenin, Israeli gunfire killed a 10-year-old boy, Palestinian doctors said.

Troops swept into Bethlehem in the West Bank before dawn and fanned across the city.

Soldiers began arresting suspected militants and sealed off the Church of the Nativity to prevent any militants taking refuge in the church compound as they did during an Israeli incursion in April.

“We are currently controlling the whole city,” a local military commander said. The army said troops were searching for 30 militants suspected of involvement in Thursday’s bombing on a packed bus or planning other attacks.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, facing a leadership challenge from hardline Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, sent the troops into the city just south of occupied Al Quds following heavy pressure to hit back hard for Thursday’s suicide bombing.

But his response is likely to be tempered by calls for restraint by the United States, which fears new violence and tensions in the region could undermine its efforts to achieve calm as it seeks Arab support for a possible invasion of Iraq.

“I have ordered the security forces to take all necessary steps in order to hurt those who try to harm us,” Sharon told reporters during a visit to a lookout near Bethlehem.

Troops rounded up about 20 suspects in Bethlehem and 16 people elsewhere in the West Bank, most of them members of the Hamas, which claimed Thursday’s attack. Army radio said one was a girl accused of planning a suicide bombing.

The Israeli army blew up the home near Bethlehem of the 23-year-old bomber behind Thursday’s attack and destroyed the houses of two Hamas members in the Gaza Strip, saying the demolitions sent a message that “their deeds have a price”.

But senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said: “The Israeli incursions will not provide security nor peace. It will just add to the complexities.”

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat called the Israeli raid “a military escalation” which violated international agreements.

Sharon and Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz cleared the way for military action in Bethlehem by declaring void an August agreement that led Israel to pull troops out of the city and hand security control over to the Palestinians.

In Gaza, Palestinian security sources said a police official was killed by a tank shell near the Jewish settlement of Netzarim.

Palestinians in Gaza also killed an Israeli soldier early on Friday, the army said.

ARAFAT: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Friday slammed Israel for violating international law after the army reoccupied Bethlehem.

“I want to ask this government when it ever honored and felt bound by peace agreements” with Palestinians, said a disgruntled Arafat, addressing journalists outside his Ramallah compound.

“Israel wants to destroy peace not only with the Palestinians but with the whole of the Middle East and with all Arab countries,” he said.

“Israeli violates every international treaties and international laws ... but we will persist in our steadfastness,” he added.

Earlier Friday, a senior Palestinian official denounced the Israeli reoccupation of Bethlehem and the army raids on Jenin and southern Gaza, warning against a “serious escalation”.

“The reoccupation of Bethlehem, Jenin and Al-Qarada shows that Israel does not honor the agreements it has signed” with the Palestinians, top Arafat aide Nabil Abu Rudeina said.

“We condemn this serious escalation of violence that could impact the whole region and lead to even more violence,” he said, making yet another Palestinian call for the international community to intervene. —Reuters/AFP