Iain Hook

Iain John Hook was born in Felixstowe, Suffolk, in 1948. He was subsequently commissioned into the British Army's Parachute Regiment. Hook married and had three sons and a daughter; two of his sons later served in the British Armed Forces as officers. ==Death and subsequent events==

UNRWA work Iain Hook was working for United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) — which is "created to administer Palestinian refugee camps set up after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war"— as project manager in the rebuilding of Jenin refugee camp in West Bank, which was home to 13,000 Palestinian refugees. Death On 22 November 2002, Hook left a voice message with Israeli authorities that armed Palestinian militants ("shabab"-youth) had "knocked a hole in the wall" of the UNRWA compound and "pinned down" his men. An Israeli spokesman released a tape recording of a message he received from Hook on his cell phone that day. Israeli Army radio said that the sniper who killed him mistook his cell phone for a handgun or grenade. The United Nations stated that there were no gunmen at the compound, and dispute the claims that the shooting was a mistake; Hook was shot in the back by a sniper with a scoped rifle, from a distance of 20 meters. Ambulance controversy United Nations said it immediately arranged an ambulance for patient evacuation but said Israeli soldiers on the field delayed the ambulance sent to evacuate Hook and changed its route, later echoed by then UN secretary-general Kofi Annan. United States ambassador John D. Negroponte said Syria and the Palestinians seemed "more intent on condemning Israeli occupation than on ensuring the safety of United Nations personnel." Israel, however, found that "no criminal act had been committed" and no criminal charges were filed. More than sixty United Nations workers wrote a letter criticizing Israeli troops for "senseless" and "wanton" behavior, complaining of abuse and humiliation. In 2005, Irish activist Caoimhe Butterly gave written eyewitness testimony in the inquest into the killing of Hook by an Israeli military sniper. Dr Peter Hansen, former Commissioner General of the UNRWA, said that "over the past four years 13 UNRWA workers, including Mr. Hook, had been shot in similar circumstances by the Israeli army". In a statement after the verdict, Paul Wolstenholme, a colleague of Hook who was in the compound at time of the shooting, said the Israeli sniper would have known he was not a Palestinian. "It was not a case of mistaken identity, it was a deliberate act," he said. ==See also==