Protester 'desperate' to get home

Israel has reoccupied four West Bank cities recently

The family of a British protester injured in Israel say he has been stopped from flying home to attend his father's funeral.

Kunle Ibidun, 30, from Bristol was injured during a peace march in Bethlehem.

Mr Ibidun, originally from Glasgow, is said to be trapped in his hotel because a consulate car is not allowed to accompany him through the fighting to the airport.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman confirmed consular officials had spent several hours in armoured vehicles outside the West Bank town, waiting for permission to remove trapped Britons who wanted to leave.

The spokeswoman said the issue had been raised with the Israeli authorities, but the message had not got through to those on the ground.

"We will keep trying and hopefully we will get permission early tomorrow," she said.

Mr Ibidun is said by his sister Billie to be devastated by news of their father's sudden death from a stroke.

Kunle Ibidun was hit by shrapnel in the chin, elbow and arm after troops fired near the group of about 200 protesters from the International Solidarity Movement.

The group were making their way from Bethlehem to the nearby town of Beit Jala.

His sister said he had been through a terrifying experience, and that his priority now was to get home and be with his family.

Father's pride

"He is just really devastated about what has happened in our family and desperate to come home.

"He said he is very glad that he went out and that he will be going back but at the moment he is just thinking about coming home to be with the rest of us and to help me organise the funeral."

Miss Ibidun, 34, said their father James, 60, from Manchester, had been proud of his son and what he was doing.

"People there know what loss is like. My brother needs to be home. He needs to bury his father."