Free-lance photographer wounded in Bethlehem

JERUSALEM - An American free-lance photographer on assignment for The Associated Press was shot and wounded Saturday while covering a Palestinian riot in Bethlehem.

Yola Monakhov was wounded in the lower abdomen, said Dr. Peter Qumri, the head of the Beit Jalla Hospital where she was initially taken.

Monakhov was later moved to Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital, where she underwent a six-hour surgery. Dr. Avi Rivkind, chief of Hadassah's trauma unit, said her internal injuries were repaired but the bullet remained lodged in her abdomen because doctors considered its removal unsafe.

Monakhov, 26, was expected to leave intensive care Sunday but may have to undergo another surgery, doctors said.

Monakhov, who was conscious after the shooting, said she was covering a riot near the religious shrine of Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem. She said she was hit by fire from an Israeli soldier. Palestinian witnesses told reporters she was near some youths who were throwing stones at Israeli troops and that one soldier turned a corner and opened fire, hitting her.

Israeli military spokesman Yarden Vatikay said an initial investigation showed that soldiers stationed in Bethlehem fired rubber bullets in response to ''very heavy rioting.'' In one instance, a live bullet was fired, hitting a Palestinian rioter, he said.

''We do not have any intention of hurting journalists. The opposite is true,'' Vatikay said. Foreign journalists were allowed into Bethlehem despite an army-imposed closure of the city ''precisely because we believe in freedom of speech,'' he added.

The commander of Israeli forces in the area, Col. Marcel Aviv, also insisted his troops fired only one live bullet on a street near Rachel's Tomb, hitting a rioter in the leg. He said firing was also heard from the Palestinian side in Bethlehem.

''Maybe she was wounded, and maybe by their stray bullet,'' Aviv told Israel Radio. ''Our forces did not identify a photographer on the other side, a woman at whom a rubber or a live bullet was directed. Therefore it looks strange to me.''

Monakhov, of New York, is a U.S. citizen who also holds a Russian passport. She arrived in Israel two months ago and has since been working on assignments for foreign news organizations.

Rachel's Tomb has been the site of frequent clashes since the Israeli-Palestinian violence broke out six weeks ago. An Israeli soldier was mortally wounded there on Friday by Palestinian gunmen.