Gaza
Visitors Must Sign Waiver In Case
Army Shoots Them
By Chris McGreal in Jerusalem
The Guardian
10 May, 2003
The Israeli military yesterday
began obliging foreigners entering the Gaza Strip to sign waivers absolving
the army from responsibility if it shoots them. Visitors must also declare
that they are not peace activists.
The move came hours before
an autopsy on James Miller - the British cameraman killed in a Gaza
refugee camp - confirmed that he was almost certainly killed by an Israeli
soldier, despite the army's assertions to the contrary.
Yesterday, the British government
demanded an Israeli military police criminal investigation into Miller's
death and the shooting of another Briton by the army in Gaza, Tom Hurndall,
a peace activist.
Mr Hurndall is in a coma
with severe brain damage after being shot in the head by an Israeli
soldier last month as he attempted to protect a small child from gunfire.
The Foreign Office minister, Mike O'Brien, called in the Israeli ambassador
to London to press the demand, which diplomatic sources portrayed as
a ratcheting up of pressure on the Israeli government.
"On the basis of the
evidence we've seen, we feel this case is so serious that we are asking
for a military police investigation," said a Foreign Office spokesperson.
The waiver to enter Gaza
requires foreigners, including United Nations relief workers, to acknowledge
that they are entering a danger zone and will not hold the Israeli army
responsible if they are shot or injured. The army document also warns
visitors they are forbidden from approaching the security fences next
to Jewish settlements or entering "military zones" in Rafah
refugee camp close to the Egyptian border where Miller was shot dead
on Saturday.
He was the third foreigner
killed or severely wounded in the area in recent weeks, besides numerous
Palestinian civilians hit by Israeli fire, many of them children. The
army invariably claims the victims were caught in crossfire. Palestinians
say most of the shooting is indiscriminate and reckless, or worse.
The latest victims include
a one-year-old boy, Alian Bashiti, shot dead in his home in neighbouring
Khan Younis refugee camp on Wednesday.
Yesterday, Israel's forensic
institute issued its autopsy report which backs up the accounts of witnesses
who say that Miller was killed by a shot from an Israeli armoured vehicle.
A video of the shooting also appears to undermine Israeli army claims
that Miller, 34, was caught in crossfire and that soldiers shot in his
direction in response to incoming fire from a Palestinian gunman nearby.
The film shows three journalists
in flak jackets and helmets, clearly marked with the letters TV. They
are shouting "Is there anyone there? Is there anyone there? We
are British journalists." A single shot is heard and then another
followed by the sound of Miller groaning after he was hit. There is
no sound of crossfire.
Yesterday, the army said
it had yet to receive the report and therefore could not comment.
The military also now requires
visitors to Gaza to declare that they have no affiliation to the International
Solidarity Movement (ISM) which is close to becoming a banned organisation
since it was revealed that members met with two British suicide bombers
days before the attack on a Tel Aviv bar last week in which three people
were murdered.
The ISM acknowledges that
the bombers - Asif Hanif, who blew himself up, and Omar Sharif, whose
bomb failed to explode and who is still being hunted - attended one
of its meetings but says the organisation had no idea of their intent.
A Hamas militant was killed
in a helicopter missile strike in Gaza City yesterday.