U.S. "Human Shield" killed by Israeli Army!

GAZA, March 16 (Reuters) - An Israeli military bulldozer killed an American woman protesting the demolition of a house in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, Palestinian medical officials and witnesses said.

The woman, identified as 23-year-old Rachel Corey, was lying on the ground in front of an army bulldozer when she was covered with large quantities of sand, Ali al-Shaar, a witness to the incident, told Reuters.

"The American girl was lying in front of the bulldozer when the bulldozer took sand and put it over her," Shaar told Reuters.

Corey was taken to the al-Najar hospital in the southern Gaza Strip where doctors said she died from severe skull and chest fractures.

The Israeli army said it was checking the report.

"The bulldozer put sand on her and kept crushing her," said Nicholas Dure, a fellow member of the International Solidarity Campaign to Protect the Palestinian People protest group.

Israeli forces regularly destroy buildings in Gaza's Rafah neighbourhood along the border with Egypt, which they say are used by Palestinian gunmen to fire on Israeli troops patrolling the border, or hide tunnels used to smuggle weapons from Egypt.

A group of foreign volunteers have been operating in southern Gaza for months, trying to prevent the army from demolishing buildings, often by blocking bulldozers with their bodies.