Israelis wound 5 peace activists

By Michael Jansen
April 2, 2002


Five foreign peace activists were wounded yesterday by Israeli fire in the Bethlehem area village of Beit Jala in the West Bank.

Ms Georgina Reeves, a British co-ordinator for the International Solidarity Movement, told The Irish Times that three Britons, one Australian and one US citizen were injured as they made their rounds of the hill village ascertaining whether Palestinians trapped in their homes were in need of medical attention or food.

The volunteers "were approaching Israeli armoured personnel carriers with their hands up and palms showing when a tank coming down the slope began firing. It continued to fire rounds as they withdrew, walking backwards with their hands raised. Four sustained superficial shrapnel wounds and one was hit in the abdomen and is being operated on at a clinic," Ms Reeves stated.

She said the movement's office spoke yesterday to Ms Caoimhe Butterly, the Irish woman who, with 34 others, is in the besieged Ramallah compound of the Palestinian president, Mr Yasser Arafat. Ms Butterly said: "Medical supplies are dangerously low. Israel is not allowing ambulances into the compound. There is no running water and food is short."

Ms Butterly and her colleagues have issued appeals to their ambassadors in Israel to travel to Ramallah and provide protection for the people in the headquarters as well as ordinary Palestinians.