As tensions in Israel continue to rise, Christen Pears meets a woman who spent two weeks under siege in a Palestinian refugee camp, and who plans to return later this summer.

WHEN Israeli tanks rolled into Bethlehem at Easter, Claire Theret was trapped in a Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of the holy city. For the first two nights of the invasion, she was afraid to sleep, listening to the sound of gunfire and exploding shells nearby, and wondering whether the army would storm the camp.

She watched as helicopters hovered low over the rooftops and snipers picked off civilians in the streets, and she saw a woman shot as she carried food into her dining room for her family.

"It was a terrible, terrible thing and for a while, I couldn't stop shaking. I had gone to witness and non-violently resist the Israeli occupation but when the siege started, I saw more than I could ever have imagined. It really changed me," she says.

The 45-year-old languages teacher travelled to Israel as a peace observer with the International Solidarity Movement. The group had planned to spend ten days in the Aida refugee camp, meeting refugees and helping distribute aid, but they found themselves caught up in a stand-off between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen.

"We spent two weeks in the camp. I was very frightened, of course, but at the same time I was happy to be there because even just our presence helped protect the Palestinians. At one point, the medical supplies ran low and we decided to defy the curfew and go to the hospital to get medicine. If the Palestinians had gone, they would have been shot but it was less risky for us."

Claire, who is French, now lives in Wallsend, near Newcastle, with her husband and 20-year-old daughter. Her dining table is covered with photographs of the camp and the notes she uses for the lectures she gives about her experiences. A badge, emblazoned with the logo 'Free Palestine', lies among the piles of paper.

"I have always been interested in what is happening in Palestine but I always felt I was being misinformed," explains Claire in her accented, but perfect, English. "I wanted to know more and when I began to look on the Internet, I realised that what we find out about over here is just half the story. The media do a very efficient job of making people think all Palestinians are terrorists, but that is certainly not the case."

After carrying out research and talking to people who had visited the Middle East, Claire decided to travel there herself, and joined a group of international peace observers at the Aida refugee camp.

The camp was built by the United Nations in 1948 as a temporary home for Palestinians made homeless by the creation of Israel but, over the years, it has developed into a town and is now home to 4,000 people, who are living on just six acres of land.

Claire's photographs show streets of concrete and breezeblock houses. Many have been damaged by shells or bullets, but children decorate the scarred walls with colourful murals. The walls are topped with barbed wire but, in the distance, you can see the roofs of the nearby Israeli settlement.

The people who live at Aida are poor, explains Claire, and there is 70 per cent unemployment. Most people find it virtually impossible to go to work because of Israeli road blocks, and snipers make it dangerous for children to attend school.

There have been five Israeli invasions of the camp since last August. During Claire's stay, soldiers smashed their way into the youth centre. She shows me photographs of some of the damage - broken camera equipment, tubes of paint squeezed all over the computers and theatre props destroyed.

"Fortunately, no one was hurt but the people they targeted weren't terrorists, they were children. There's no excuse. But I think the Palestinians are very brave and they won't bow down to this sort of thing.

"After the siege started, I spent a lot of time talking to people and gathering testimonies. I found out a lot about them. Everybody has a story or several stories about someone in their family who has been killed just going about their daily business, but they're very patient, very resilient."

She talks about a 19-year-old Palestinian she met during her visit. He had been injured twice by Israeli snipers and his brother was killed, shot outside his home by a sniper.

"I asked him how he felt and he told me the Palestinians had to bear what was happening to them because, one day, justice would be done. He's like most Palestinians. They just want peace and they want to be able to get on with their lives. They don't understand why they are being persecuted."

Once again, the situation in Israel is beginning to spiral out of control. Waves of Palestinian suicide bomb attacks in the last couple of months have led to Israeli reprisals and George W Bush has called for Yasser Arafat to stand down. Peace seems as elusive as ever but Claire says it is wrong to blame the Palestinians.

"Everyone seems to think it is their fault but Palestinians are killed by the dozen every day and we never hear anything about it. They're killed on the streets by snipers or they die at checkpoints because the soldiers won't let them go through to hospital.

"It's ethnic cleansing. It's genocide and because the British Government just follows America's foreign policy, we are accomplices. I am Jewish myself, although not practising, and I am ashamed of what the Israelis are doing. They are behaving exactly as the Nazis did against the Jews."

She also has strong opinions about suicide bombers. She doesn't condone the killing but says she can understand how the Palestinians justify their actions.

"Of course it is terrible when innocent people are killed but, when I did history at school in France, we learned about the Resistance and the acts of sabotage they carried out during the Second World War. We would never have dreamt of calling them terrorists - they were heroes - and I don't believe the suicide bombers will be known as terrorists in the Palestinian history books."

Claire emerged from her two-week ordeal tired but unscathed and, since returning home, she has campaigned to raise awareness of the Palestinians' plight. She gives talks to peace groups around the North-East and hands out leaflets on the streets. She's planning to return to Aida next month.

"I don't have any problems about going back. I have made a lot of friends out there and I know they will welcome me. I was lucky last time because it was just two weeks of my life, but for the people who live in the camp, it's like that every day and if there's anything I can do to help them, I will."

Claire doesn't see any immediate prospect for peace but she does believe the situation will eventually change. "It changed in South Africa, it changed in Vietnam and it is going to change in Palestine. Justice will prevail but, in the mean time, thousands of Palestinians are suffering and many of them will die."