THE East Anglian United Nations worker killed in a West Bank refugee camp was shot in the back, it has been reported.Iain Hook, 54, from Felixstowe Ferry, died while trying to save his colleagues during an Israeli attack on a UN compound at Jenin on the West Bank.

THE East Anglian United Nations worker killed in a West Bank refugee camp was shot in the back, it has been reported.

Iain Hook, 54, from Felixstowe Ferry, died while trying to save his colleagues during an Israeli attack on a UN compound at Jenin on the West Bank.

He was trying to evacuate his staff as Israeli troops surrounded the nearby hideout of a wanted Islamic Jihad leader suspected of masterminding a suicide bombing which killed 14 people.

Mr Hook suffered a single gunshot wound to his abdomen on November 22 and died in an ambulance on his way to hospital.

Witnesses at the scene said Mr Hook was trying to negotiate the release of his team from the refugee camp when he was shot. It was reported that his body lay in the road for 20 minutes.

Mr Hook, who also used to live in George Street, Hadleigh, lived with his wife Cathy and had only been in the Middle East for a few weeks before he was killed.

He was under contract for British company Crown Agents and after his death tributes to Mr Hook poured in from British Government ministers, Israeli Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and UNRWA Commissioner General Peter Hansen.

At first it was believed he may have been shot after an Israeli soldier thought his mobile phone was a grenade.

Now a new UN report, handed to the New York Times, claims he was shot in the back from at most 30 yards away.

Peter Hansen, commissioner general of UNRWA, said the UN report also found that contrary to some claims by the Israeli government, no Palestinian militants were in the UN compound at the time of the shooting.

The report has yet to be officially published, but it has been presented to the British Government. Coroner Dr Peter Dean opened and adjourned the inquest into Mr Hook's death at Ipswich Crown Court in December. A full inquest will take place at a date yet to be fixed

Mr Hook was head of an £18 million UNRWA project rebuilding the refugee camp in Jenin, and had been working there six weeks. He had previously worked in Kosovo, East Timor and Afghanistan.

INTERNET:

www.un.org