Robinson convoy hit by bullet in Hebron

A bullet hit a car in the convoy of the UN human rights commissioner, Mary Robinson, as she visited the West Bank town of Hebron yesterday.

A bullet hit a car in the convoy of the UN human rights commissioner, Mary Robinson, as she visited the West Bank town of Hebron yesterday.

Who fired at the three vehicle convoy during the former Irish president's trip to the divided town was not clear. She was not in the car the bullet hit.

No one was injured in the incident but the human rights commissioner was said to be upset. She was touring the West Bank and Gaza to investigate complaints by Palestinians that Israeli soldiers had been using excessive force against Palestinian stonethrowers and gunmen. More than 200 people have been killed - mostly Arabs shot by the Israeli army - in the past six weeks.

The shooting erupted shortly after Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen exchanged fire in a nearby area of Hebron.

The Israeli army blamed Palestinians for shooting at Mrs Robinson's car. But Palestinian police near the scene said militant Jewish settlers fired at the convoy in an Israeli-controlled part of the town, near the Jewish settlement of Tel Rumeida.

Noam Arnon, a spokesman for Jewish settlers in Hebron, denied they were involved. About 400 militant Jewish settlers live in the heart of the West Bank town among some 120,000 Palestinians.