Israeli rifle fire injures seven foreigners including two Britons

An Israeli soldier in an armoured personnel carrier wounded seven international peace campaigners and a Palestinian cameraman yesterday when he fired in front of about 100 protesters marching through the West Bank town of Beit Jala.

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An Israeli soldier in an armoured personnel carrier wounded seven international peace campaigners and a Palestinian cameraman yesterday when he fired in front of about 100 protesters marching through the West Bank town of Beit Jala.

Israeli troops reoccupied Beit Jala, which overlooks Bethlehem, early yesterday as part of their offensive against Palestinian militants.

The Foreign Office said last night that four of the wounded were British. None had serious injuries but they were treated in hospital. Kumle Ibidun, of Bristol, was wounded in the stomach. Palestinian doctors also removed shrapnel from the abdomen of an American woman, who was recovering in Beit Jala hospital. George Rishmawi, one of the protest organisers, said the others were wounded by shots from an M-16 assault rifle.

Another of the injured, James Budd, a 59-year-old freelance translator from Essex, suffered flesh wounds in the face and the back of his head. Speaking from his Bethlehem hotel last night, he said: "We marched through Beit Jala, negotiating our way with the Israelis to enter the area under their control. A soldier in an APC signalled us with his hand to go back. We stopped and went back a few yards.

"The APC then moved forward, and the soldier gestured us to move back again. We did so. Then he fired something, either a bullet or a stun grenade, at the road in front of us ... It made a very loud noise. He gestured us to go back again, which we did.

"I was standing by the side of the road taking a photograph, when I heard another loud bang. I felt as if I'd been punched in the face. I wasn't hit by a bullet; it could have been a ricochet off the road. Somebody saw that I was bleeding and pulled me back to a waiting ambulance."

An Israeli army spokesman said later the incident was being reviewed.

Earlier, troops stopped about 50 foreigners, mostly Italians, from entering Ramallah to join a group there showing solidarity with the besieged Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat. Ten French nationals, arrested in Ramallah, are in police custody.

On Sunday, Anthony Shahid, of The Boston Globe, was shot in the shoulder. Said Ghazali, a Palestinian reporter working for The Independent, was with him at the time. He said they were walking in an area under full Israeli control.

Late last night witnesses said Israeli troops raided the Deheisheh refugee camp on the edge of Bethlehem, while Israeli security sources claimed Iranian-backed Hizbollah guerrillas fired a 107mm Katyusha rocket into the Upper Galilee region of Israel. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

It was the first reported Katyusha strike by Hizbollah guerrillas on Israeli territory since the Israeli army withdrew from Lebanon in May 2000, ending a 22-year long occupation.