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British Peace Activist Shot By Israeli Soldier Dies
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Hurndall was trying to pull 2 children out of danger when shots were deliberately fired from a nearby Israeli army watchtower
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LONDON, January 14
(IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - A British peace activist, who
had been in a coma and brain dead since being shot by an Israeli
soldier at a Palestinian refugee camp in the Gaza strip in April 2003,
died, his family said Wednesday, January 14.
"Tom died last night"
(Tuesday) at the specialist Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability in
Putney, southwest London, after a bout of pneumonia, his mother
Jocelyn Hurndall was quoted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) as saying.
Tom Hurndall, 22, an activist with
the International Solidarity Movement, was
hit in the head and critically wounded by Israeli sniper
fire in the Rafah refugee camp on April 11.
Hurndall was subsequently pronounced
clinically dead and airlifted to London, where he remained in a
vegetative state in hospital.
Palestinian medics and
witnesses said Hurndall was trying to pull two Palestinian children
out of danger when shots were deliberately fired from a nearby Israeli
army watchtower.
The Israeli military announced
December 31 that one of its soldiers - who it did not identify - had
been arrested in connection with the shooting of the Manchester
university photography student.
It said the soldier had initially
claimed that he returned fire at a man armed with a pistol.
"However, following an intensive
investigation by the military police of the Southern Command, the
soldier admitted to shooting in proximity of an unarmed civilian in
order to deter him," it added.
This same soldier, earlier in January
2004, was also accused of drug-taking, as he was nabbed with a group
of around a dozen soldiers who smoked cannabis during the course of an
operation.
In occupied Jerusalem, an Israeli
army spokesman said on Wednesday that the soldier was indicted on six
counts on Monday, and that following Hurndall's death it was possible
that the charge sheet would be modified.
'Premeditated Murder'
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The mother of peace activist Tom Hurndall, and his brother hug Palestinian children
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Speaking on BBC radio, Hurndall's
sister Sophie Hurndall said the family felt "a great
sadness", but also "a sense of relief" that his
suffering was finally over.
But she held out hope that justice
would eventually be done.
The army has been, the whole way
along with this, trying to get itself off the hook and its
soldiers," she said.
"In my mind, there is absolutely
no question that it was absolutely premeditated," she said.
"We know that he (the soldier)
was using a telescopic lens. We know that he's lied consistently. We
know that other soldiers lie for him. We know that he knew that Tom
was wearing an orange jacket. And he's confessed that he knew Tom was
unarmed at the time".
Carl Arrindell, a spokesman for the
Hurndalls, said: "The family are absolutely determined to pursue
this soldier".
"They want to make sure Tom's
killer is prosecuted for murder and not for manslaughter," he
said.
"The family will be pressing its
lawyers to ensure that the appropriate charge of murder is applied in
this case".
The Israeli soldiers have come under
fire for shooting at international unarmed activists trying to defend
the Palestinians.
On November 22, Israeli occupation
forces gunned down Ian
Hook , a British U.N. worker in Jenin refugee camp.
On August 1, Israeli occupation
forces fired tear gas grenades and rubber bullets, at more than 1,000
Palestinians and foreign peace activists who were demonstrating
against the Israeli construction of a separation wall in the occupied
West Bank, wounding
11 people .
In July 28, Five
foreign peace activists were wounded when Israeli forces
used live ammunition to disperse protestors against the separation
wall.
In May 2003, a British television
cameraman James Miller, 34, was shot and killed by Israeli troops in
the Rafah area.
In March 2003, an Israeli bulldozer
crushed and killed Rachel
Corrie , 23, an American member of the International
Solidarity Movement, in Rafah as she tried to protest against the
demolition of a house.
Also, a 24-year-old American, Barry
Avery , suffered a serious gunshot wound to the face, while a
Danish man, Lasse Schmidt, 35, was wounded in the leg by shrapnel by
Israeli fire last year.
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