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.
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
In front of a secluded temple in southwestern China, Duan Ruru skillfully executes a series of chops and strikes, practicing kung fu techniques she has spent a decade mastering. Chinese martial arts have long been considered a male-dominated sphere, but a cohort of Generation Z women like Duan is challenging that assumption and generating publicity for their particular school of kung fu. “Since I was little, I’ve had a love for martial arts... I thought that girls learning martial arts was super swaggy,” Duan, 23, said. The ancient Emei school where she trains in the mountains of China’s Sichuan Province
RSS