Israeli Troops Murder British ISM Activist After Telling Palestinians To Learn From Iraq

Israeli troops 'shoot British peace activist'

Staff and agencies
Friday April 11, 2003

Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip today shot a British peace activist as he was trying to move children away from gunfire, witnesses said.
The activist, named by Reuters as Tom Handoll, in his early 20s, had been working as a human shield with the International Solidarity Movement at the Rafah refugee camp, near the Eyptian border.

He was standing between Israeli troops and a group of Palestinian children when soldiers opened fire, said Khalil Abdullah, an activist with the Palestinian-backed group.

Mr Handoll was reportedly trying to help two children caught in gunfire to cross the street when Israeli soldiers shot him in the head.

The director of the Rafa hospital, Ali Musa, said that Mr Handoll was "clinically dead" after sustaining brain damage.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army.

"A group of ISM people were trying to set up a small protest tent alongside a road used by the army. The soldiers opened fire," said Mr Abdullah, who witnessed the shooting.

It comes a month after Rachel Corrie, an American activist working with the International Solidarity Movement, was killed when she fell in front of an Israeli bulldozer in Rafah.

ISM claimed the bulldozer ran over her, and then backed up. The army denied the claim, saying that the bulldozer operator did not see her.

Last week, another American activist with the group, Brian Avery, was shot in the West Bank city of Jenin.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,935018,00.html