British lawmakers say were shot at in Gaza, no injuries

However, a British official said it was "too early to say" whether the lawmakers came under fire from Israeli soldiers or Palestinian gunmen in the militant stronghold of Rafah, along the Gaza-Egypt border on Friday.

"They just reported the incident to us and as I said we will follow that up with the Israelis," the official told Reuters. Asked whether it was Israeli soldiers who fired at the group he said: "I think it's too early to say".

An Israel Defense Forces spokesman said that the army found out about the lawmakers' claims only from media reports, not through an official complaint, and that it was looking into the report. The army also said that the lawmakers' visit was not coordinated with the IDF or with the Israeli Foreign Ministry.

Baroness Northover, the Liberal Democrat party's House of Lords spokeswoman on international development issues, said the group was traveling under United Nations supervision near the Rafah refugee camp Friday when machine gun fire from an IDF observation post passed closely above their heads. A large number of children were nearby, she added.

The group then moved closer to where the marked UN vehicles were parked and another shot hit a building next to them, knocking pieces of masonry to the ground near Northover, she said in a statement.

The cross-party group was on a visit to the site where British peace campaigner Tom Hurndall was shot dead last year. An IDF soldier has been charged with killing him.

"We arrived more or less to the area where British peace campaigner Tom Hurndall was shot dead and later died of his wounds. Around us what a group of children, and at a certain stage we heard shots. UN staff with us located the source of firing to an observation point at the edge of the open field, and following the shooting we quickly returned to our cars," Crispin Blunt, Conservative Member of Parliament told Haaretz Saturday.

"At this stage another shot his a wall near Baroness Northover, who entered an armored vehicle, and we then left the area."

Asked whether the lawmakers thought the shots were aimed at them, Blunt replied: "I don't think the shots were targeted at us to hurt us, but I think they were fired to make us leave the area."

"This incident has shown me first hand the indiscriminate violence faced by Palestinians on a daily basis," Baroness Northover said.

"If the Israeli Defense Forces are prepared to shoot at a delegation of parliamentarians under the supervision of the UN, one wonders what treatment ordinary Palestinians are given," she said.

She said the military appeared to be trying to prevent the group from seeing "the full effects of Israel's policy of demolishing Palestinian housing in Gaza."

Northover, the Liberal Democrats Spokesperson on International Development in the House of Lords, said that when the lawmakers returned to Britain they would seek an explanation from Israel's ambassador to London.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/440843.html