A former Israeli soldier convicted in the fatal shooting of a British activist faced up to 20 years in prison at a sentencing yesterday in a military court.
Taysir Hayb was convicted in June of manslaughter for shooting pro-Palestinian activist Tom Hurndall in the head during an army operation in the Gaza Strip in April 2003. Witnesses said Hurndall, 22, a member of the International Solidarity Movement, was helping Palestinian children avoid Israeli tanks.
Hurndall lay in a coma for nine months before dying in a London hospital.
Hayb had argued that a confession he gave was forced. Hayb, a member of Israel's Bedouin minority, also said he was prosecuted because he is an Arab and because his victim was a foreigner.
Hayb was also convicted of obstruction of justice, submitting false testimony, obtaining false testimony and unbecoming behavior.
The case marked the first time a soldier has been found guilty of killing a foreign citizen during more than four years of Palestinian-Israeli violence.
International Solidarity Movement activists often place themselves between Israeli forces and Palestinians to try to stop the Israeli military from carrying out operations, ignoring orders to leave. Israel complains the protesters are endangering themselves and the soldiers with their activities.
In March 2003, Rachel Corrie, 23, an activist from Olympia, Washington, was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer in a Gaza refugee camp while trying to stop soldiers from demolishing a house. Her death was ruled accidental. Israel said the building was used as cover by Palestinian militants to attack Israelis.
Two other British citizens have been killed in the current round of Israeli-Palestinian violence, which erupted in September 2000.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not