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1. Parents of Tom Hurndall Visit the Site of the Shooting
From: "ISM Media Alerts"


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Message: 1
Date: Tue, 15 Apr 2003 00:24:39 +0200
From: "ISM Media Alerts"
Subject: Parents of Tom Hurndall Visit the Site of the Shooting


Parents of Tom Hurndall Visit the Site of the Shooting

At 1:00 PM today Anthony and Jocelyn Hurndall made their way to Yebna,
Rafah where their son Tom was shot on Fri. April 12, by an Israeli
sniper. The entourage of two range rovers and a UN vehicle arrived at
the ISM apartment where a throng of reporters and photographers awaited
their arrival. There were also ten Palestinian security guards,
normally
assigned to Yasser Arafat, trying to keep order. Anthony, Jocelyn and
several members of the Defense Attache' of the British Embassy
initially
avoided the reporters and the hectic scene in front of the ISM
apartment.

Three ISM activists met the group and brought them up to the apartment.
They did not allow any reporters into the apartment. In the meeting
room
of the apartment, they discussed all of the details of the shooting as
well as the background that led to the shooting. Mr Hurndall was
interested in the actions of the ISM group in Rafah as well as the
Israeli policies that led to those actions. Alice and Raf explained the
ritual of random shooting into houses that is practiced by soldiers in
tanks, occupied houses, and the sniper tower. There is one house in
particular that is constantly being shot at. The group had decided to
maintain a presence in the house indefinitely and put banners all over
the house. In addition, I called the embassies and the IDF to let them
know that this house was now inhabited by Internationals. The action
never actually happened but the next day the banners were all shot up.

After an hour and a half of this discussion, the embassy personnel
thought it was time to move on. They headed back out and toward the
site
of the shooting. The press followed in two white range rovers and
taxis.
Upon arrival, Jocelyn Hurndall gave an interview to BBC. Anthony was
checking very precise details. He wanted to see who was where. He
wanted
to see the line of fire and the view of the tower. At one point the
group walked past the Mosque and was heading into an open area. The
embassy personnel encouraged all to come back for safety reasons. It is
in fron of this Mosque that an Israeli tank parks every night and
shoots
randomly down the street. It was this ritual that inspired the ISM
group
to want to set up a tent on the site where the tank usually parks. This
action also never happened.

At a very poignant moment today, Jocelyn met the little boy that Tom
had
pulled to safety. She also expressed an interest then in meeting the
boy's mother the next time she comes back.

Their last stop was the hospital where they were shown an xray taken
the
night of the shooting. According to the ISM activist with them at the
hospital, they were very grateful for this. The hospital in Beersheva
has not shown them any xrays or CT scans.

For more information contact:
Raf 054 389 466



Tom
ISM Media Coordinator
Beit Sahour, Occupied Palestine
 ism-alert@palsolidarity.org
02 277 4602
052 360 241
067 862 439