MIDDLE EAST: A young Irish woman was recuperating in hospital last night after being shot by an Israeli soldier at the Jenin refugee camp in the northern point of the West Bank.
Ms Caoimhe Butterly (23) was shot in the thigh by an Israeli soldier as soldiers clashed with a group of children.
"I was shot at a very close range," she told The Irish Times from her hospital bed. "I could see the soldier's face and I'm sure he could see mine."
She said she had gone into the camp after receiving a call that a mother could not get an ambulance to collect her sick daughter because Israeli soldiers had blocked two roads to the camp in a rearrest mission.
"I went in to negotiate with the soldiers but I was immediately arrested," Ms Butterly said.
She said she was brought to an area where 20 Palestinian men were being held. She was interrogated for two hours before being released and told not to return.
She spoke briefly to Mr Iain John Hook, a British UN Relief and Works Agency official, who was later killed in gunfire.
Ms Butterly said she was continuing on her way to the sick child's house when she saw a group of Israeli soldiers firing live ammunition at a big group of children.
"One soldier stopped but an APC (armoured personnel carrier) pulled up and started shooting in the air. Most of the kids dispersed and as I was trying to drag some children away I saw an Israeli with his gun pointing blatantly at me. He shot at me and when I fell down he kept shooting up the road."
She was dragged away by the children and put on a makeshift stretcher before being brought to hospital. Ms Butterly, originally from Dublin, has been in Jenin since April.
