An Israeli military court has found former IDF sniper Wahid Taysir guilty of manslaughter in the shooting death of British citisen/ ISM activist Tom Hurndall, as well, guilty of obstruction of justice and giving false testimony.
Tom Hurndall’s brother, William, was denied entry into Israel. Only after filing an emergency petition and agreeing to rigid conditions was he allowed to attend the reading of the verdict with his family.
Mr Hurndall’s sister Sophie said she felt a “huge amount of anger” towards Hayb.
“Tom was rescuing a child,” she said, adding that what Hayb did “was the most despicable action you could carry out”.
But she added: “He’s been hung out to dry by the Israeli army who have not taken responsibility for the poor investigation and absolute lack of accountability.”
Mr Hurndall’s father, who had been sitting in court within touching distance of Hayb, said the guilty verdict was the right one.
But he also expressed concern about the “culture in which this incident took place”.
“We’re concerned that there is a policy which seems to be prevalent in Gaza, amongst the Israeli soldiers and army, that they feel able to shoot civilians really without any accountability whatsoever.”
Civil liberties group Human Rights Watch last week accused Israel of investigating less than 5% of hundreds of cases of Palestinians killed since 2000.
Israeli authorities say there is no policy of tolerating the shooting of civilians.
A film about the case, Shot on Camera: Tom Hurndall, will be shown on BBC Three on Monday 27 June at 2000 BST.
The ISM has more.
How is a sniper’s head shot anything but an intentional kill?
The Killing Zone is a film that can still be had using Bit Torrent, no telling how long, thanks to SCOTUS.