BOSTONTOPALESTINE URGENT UPDATE- International Solidarity Movement
Activist (ISMer) critically wounded after IDF opens fire

*Please note that this is Tom Handoll, a British ISM activist, and not
Tom of bostontopalestine (also working with ISM). More info will be sent
as it becomes available.

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Israeli Fire Critically Wounds British Activist
Fri April 11, 2003 11:46 AM ET

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Israeli troops shot and critically wounded
a 21-year-old British peace activist helping Palestinian children cross
a street under gunfire Friday, fellow activists and hospital officials
said.

Tom Handoll was one of 12 members of the International Solidarity
Movement (ISM) who Thursday went to the Rafah refugee camp on the
Egyptian border to protest at continued Israeli shooting in the area,
said ISM member Nick Smith.

According to Smith, Handoll was shot in the head as he tried to help a
group of children cross a street in an area under Israeli gunfire.

Ali Musa, director of the Rafah hospital, said Handoll's brain had been
damaged and that he was "clinically dead."

The army was checking the report.

ISM is a group that positions its activists as "human shields" around
the West Bank and Gaza. Last week it said Israeli soldiers had shot and
severely wounded one of its activists in Jenin.

Last month, an American ISM member, Rachel Corrie, was crushed to death
by an Israeli armored bulldozer in Gaza.

The army called that incident a "regrettable accident," saying the
driver could not see Corrie as she tried to block the bulldozer from
demolishing a Palestinian home in a flashpoint border area. ISM said
Corrie was run over deliberately.

An ISM member who gave her name only as Alison said Handoll had gone to
Iraq to act as a human shield against U.S-led coalition troops and then
to Jordan to help Iraqi refugees before joining the movement in Gaza.

HELICOPTERS FIRED MISSILES

Also Friday, Israeli helicopter gunships fired three missiles into a
cemetery bordering on a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip, setting off
gun battles nearby in which three Palestinians were wounded, witnesses
said.

It was not immediately clear why Israel fired into the cemetery and the
army had no comment on the incident. Military sources however, confirmed
soldiers had been operating in the area.

Palestinian witnesses said they suspected the helicopter had neutralized
a booby trap set up by Israel against a wanted militant living near the
cemetery after it was discovered by Palestinian youth.

The army had no immediate comment on the Palestinian suspicions.

In the past week, Israeli missile strikes have twice targeted Islamic
militants in Gaza, Thursday killing a bomb expert and Tuesday a senior
militant and six others.

Israel has tracked and killed dozens of militants during the 30-month
Palestinian uprising for statehood. Palestinians call the practice
state-sponsored assassination and Israel calls it self-defense.

At least 1,987 Palestinians and 729 Israelis have been killed since the
uprising flared after negotiations on a Palestinian state froze.




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