Snipers Declare Open Season On Peace Activists
A British peace activist was shot in the head yesterday as he tried to help a Palestinian woman and her children flee Israeli gunfire … Most of the Palestinians around us had run away, but there was a woman with her two children stuck in front of us. I looked up and Tom was moving towards them in his orange vest. “I imagine he was trying to take them to safety. Then he was shot in the head by a single bullet, I believe from an Israeli watchtower.” … Last month a US activist, Rachel Corrie, 23, was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer … Last week, Brian Avery, 24, another activist from New Mexico, was shot in the face by Israeli soldiers in Jenin. A spokesman for the International Solidarity Movement – the group which had trained Mr Hurndall in non-violent resistance – alleged that the Israeli army had embarked on a campaign against its activists.
Along the way, the protesters were joined by several children, the witnesses said. When the group was about 200 yards away from three tanks, soldiers opened fire from a tank-mounted machine gun, the witnesses said. Hurndall and another foreign activist tried to get two children out of the line of fire, Hamra and Abdullah said. “Thomas grabbed one of their hands and as soon as he did that a tank fired at him, hitting him in the head,” Hamra said. The photographer said the children were not throwing rocks at the troops and that he saw nothing that would have provoked the troops.
Earlier here.
“Peace activist” should be in quotes, since he was a member of the always peaceful, never terrorist-supporting ISM. Just a tip.
If you have proof that the ISM provide havens for “terrorists” please show me. As far as I see from the coverage, they seek to prevent the destruction of ordinary Palestinian people’s homes by collective punishment actions of the IDF.
Here’s the explanation from a newspaper that is more believable than that of the pal front group:
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In its initial report into the shooting of British peace activist Thom Hurndall in Gaza Friday, the IDF states: “At about 5pm yesterday an IDF post on the Israeli-Egyptian border in an Israeli security-controlled zone identified a man, who appeared to be approximately 20 years old, wearing a combat uniform and carrying a weapon.”
The report further states: “The man opened fire at the IDF post and IDF forces returned fire using one bullet – and saw that the person carrying the weapon was injured from IDF gunfire. It should be noted that this was the only shooting incident reported in the immediate area.” It was this area where Hurndall, an International Solidarity Movement activist, was thought to be injured, the report concluded.