GAZA CITY, 4 May 2003 — A British documentary filmmaker was shot dead by Israeli soldiers in the southern Gaza Strip late Friday, bringing to four the number of journalists killed since the Palestinian uprising broke out, sources from both sides said.
James Miller, 35, was hit as he was filming a stand-up segment for a documentary he was making on the Israeli Army’s destruction of hundreds of homes of activists in the Palestinian territories. Palestinian sources said he and his cameraman were covering the actual destruction of a house by an Israeli bulldozer, protected by a tank, in the town of Rafah, on the Egyptian border. Miller was struck in the back of the neck, said Ali Mussa, director of the hospital in Rafah, near the Israeli-Egyptian border.
After receiving first aid at an army post near where the shooting took place, Miller was evacuated to the Soroka hospital in the southern Israeli city of Beersheba by an army helicopter, military officials told AFP.
Palestinian authorities in Rafah accused the army of killing Miller in “cold blood” and Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath accused Israel of perpetrating a “war crime,” calling for an international enquiry. Miller’s death brings to 3,208 the number of people killed since the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, broke out in September 2000, including 2,419 Palestinians and 729 Israelis.
The most recent death was that of Nazeh Daruwazi, a 42-year-old cameraman for the US news agency Associated Press. He was killed as he was covering military operation by Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Nablus. In addition to the journalists killed during the uprising, dozens more have been wounded, mostly by Israeli gunfire.
That has brought charges from international media watchdog Reporters sans Frontieres (RSF, Reporters Without Borders) that the army has been pursuing a deliberate policy of intimidation toward journalists. Following news of Miller’s death, around 30 Palestinian journalists organized a sit-in in the West Bank town of Bethlehem to protest the incident, an AFP correspondent witnessed.
On March 16, a 23-year-old peace activist from the United States was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer in Rafah as she was acting as a human shield to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian house. The Israeli daily Haaretz reported Friday that authorities are considering expelling foreign peace activists acting as human shields.
