U.N. official shot dead in Jenin

An international staff member of the main United Nations aid agency for the Middle East was shot dead in a refugee camp in the northern West Bank city of Jenin on Friday, a spokesman for the agency said.  

"I can confirm that an international staff member has been shot dead in Jenin," said Rene Aquarone, spokesman for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) told Reuters.  

He was confirming reports by Palestinian hospital officials that a senior UNRWA official had been killed. The man, an Irish national, was killed after a gun battle broke out in the area between Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters.  

Palestinian doctors said he was killed by gunfire while working in his office in the northern part of the camp, and said another UNRWA official was thought to have been wounded.  

There was heavy gunfire in the refugee camp on Friday during an Israeli military operation to seize a senior Islamic Jihad activist. (Albawaba.com)