Britons join 200 in human shield

More than 200 international volunteers, including some 50 Britons, deployed themselves in Ramallah and two refugee camps at Bethlehem last night in an attempt to form "human shields" for Palestinian families.
The British contingent, ranging from a retired nurse from Kent to a group of students from Manchester, joined Americans and Europeans dispersed among houses close to Yasser Arafat's headquarters and Israeli army tank formations near Bethlehem's Azar and Aida refugee camps.

Israel ordered all foreign volunteers and journalists to leave Ramallah yesterday, as another media worker was shot and wounded while covering the fighting in the city.

The warning came as Anthony Shadeed, an American reporter for the Boston Globe, was wounded in the back and shoulder after being shot near the city's main square. He said he was walking along one of the main streets with his Palestinian "fixer" when he was hit from behind by a single sniper shot. Israeli soldiers denied that he had been shot by their forces.

Israel warned that any foreigners who chose to remain in Ramallah did so at the risk of being mistaken for Palestinian gunmen and shot.

But speaking above gunshots and the clatter of a surveillance helicopter, Rory Macmillan, an international business lawyer from Scotland, said he was at the Aida camp in Bethlehem to offer non-violent resistance to any attempt by the Israelis to arrest Palestinians or threaten families.