Parents of Tom Hurndall Visit the Site of 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.

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