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Rachel Corrie burns a paper American flag in a protest in the Gaza Strip (Reuters)
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| By israelinsider staff March 16, 2003 |
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A pro-Palestinian protester, Rachel Corrie, 23, was killed Sunday by an IDF bulldozer, which ran over her during demolition of a house in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip. Another activist was lightly wounded in the incident.
The woman reportedly ran in front of the bulldozer in an attempt to prevent it from destroying a house, a Palestinian doctors said. "Corrie was killed in the al-Salaam neighbourhood when an Israeli bulldozer covered her with sand as she stood in front of a bulldozer," said Dr. Ali Musa, a physician from the al-Najar hospital in Gaza Strip. He said she died from skull and chest fractures.
Greg Schnabel, 28, from Chicago, said the protesters were inside the house of Dr. Samir Masri. "Rachel was alone in front of the house as we were trying to get them to stop," he said. "She waved for bulldozer to stop and waved. She fell down and the bulldozer kept going. We yelled 'stop, stop,' and the bulldozer didn't stop at all. It had completely run over her and then it reversed and ran back over her."
Joseph Smith, 21, of Kansas City, Missouri, who was at the site, said the IDF soldier driving the bulldozer could clearly see Corrie as she sat in front of the machine. "She had sat in its path, some 200 meters in front of it (the bulldozer)," he told The Jerusalem Post. "After running her over," Smith said, "the bulldozer backed away to a distance of about half a kilometer away."
IDF Capt. Jacob Dallal of the IDF Spokesperson's Office said Corrie's death was accidental. "This is a regrettable accident," Dallal said. "We are dealing with a group of protesters who were acting very irresponsibly, putting everyone in danger." The State Department had no immediate comment.
Smith also said a male activist had been wounded by another bulldozer about half an hour previously. He said the driver of the second bulldozer also saw the activist when it ran over him, "hurling him into a pile of barbed wire." The man was lightly wounded.
Corrie was the first member of the group, called "International Solidarity Movement," to be killed in the conflict. The group has assembled gathered in locations in the territories, serving as "human shields" to disrupt and prevent IDF operations.
CNN reported that Corrie had recently participated in a mock trial in which U.S. President George Bush was accused and convicted of "war crimes."
Schnabel said Corrie was a student at Evergreen College and was planning to graduate this year. He said that, in addition to Corrie, there were seven protesters at the site, three from the United States and four from Great Britain. "We stay with families whose house is to be demolished," he told the Associated Press by phone from Rafah.
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