Aid chief unhurt in Gaza attack

Palestinian gunmen have fired on a vehicle transporting a UN aid official in the northern Gaza Strip.

John Ging, director of the UN Relief and Works Agency in Gaza, was returning from the Erez border crossing with Israel when the attack occurred.

Mr Ging said gunmen fired multiple shots into the armoured vehicle. They also tried to force the door.

No-one was injured and he was finally able to drive away. The incident is currently being investigated.

In recent months, there has been a series of abductions of Western aid workers and journalists in the increasingly lawless Gaza Strip. All were eventually released unharmed.

Meanwhile, intensive efforts are continuing to find missing BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston, who is feared kidnapped.

Palestinian security officials say he was seized by masked gunmen after leaving his office on Monday afternoon.

On Thursday, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya said that he had told the security forces to do everything possible to locate him.

'Shocking development'

The UN says this is the first time one of its employees has been shot at in Gaza, says the BBC's Katya Adler in Jerusalem.

Mr Ging said the incident happened at about 1500 local time (1300 GMT).

"We were about a kilometre from the border when our convoy was blocked by a group of armed gunmen," he told the BBC.

"They jumped out of the car, they tried to gain entry to our car. And because it was locked and it's an armoured car, they didn't have any success.

"And then they opened fire. Of course our driver who was trained in evasive tactics, he got us out of that situation very quickly, but not without our car being hit about fourteen times with bullets."

UNRWA provides relief services to more than 4.3 million registered Palestinian refugees in the Middle East.