The United Nations protested to the Israeli army today, saying soldiers held an Israeli UN staffer at gunpoint in the open air for two hours while her house was searched and her husband arrested.
The UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency aiding Palestinian refugees, said Ms Allegra Pacheco, a legal adviser and the agency's only Israeli employee, and her husband were mistreated by Israeli forces in Bethlehem on Friday.
Israel had reoccupied the town, a day after a suicide bomber from the Bethlehem area blew up a bus in Jerusalem, killing 11 people and himself.
"An armed raid on a staff member's home and degrading treatment of her and her spouse is disruptive of her ability to carry out her official functions," said a statement from the
UNRWA in Jerusalem and UN spokeswoman Ms Hua Jiang in New York.
The protest followed angry UN complaints for the killing of Mr Iain Hook, a British UNRWA official, shot by an Israeli soldier on Friday during a skirmish with Palestinian gunmen in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank.
UN officials said Israeli forces delayed an ambulance summoned to evacuate Mr Hook and he died before reaching a hospital. The army said a military ambulance was sent to aid Hook but he was dead when it arrived.