Thomas "Tom" Hurndall (27 November 1981 – 13 January 2004) was a British photography student, a volunteer for the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), and an activist against the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.
He was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier on April 11, 2003 while attempting to rescue a child who had been trapped by gunfire. He died nine months later in hospital in London. He was 22.
Today we remember his inspirational journey.
Aged 21, Tom Hurndall took a working break from his degree course at Manchester Metropolitan University in photographic journalism to join the "human shields" in Iraq before the 2003 Iraq War.
As the volunteers ran out of money and war became inevitable, he moved to Jordan and donated £500 for medical supplies for refugees from Iraq. It was there that he encountered the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), and decided to go to Gaza.
He arrived in the town of Rafah, in southern Gaza Strip, on April 6 2003 and began emailing images of the Israeli military and the Palestinians back to his family.
His obituary in The Guardian states that the tone of his journals changed dramatically. "No one could say I wasn't seeing what needs to be seen now," he wrote.
In April 2003, the Israeli army was on a mission in the Gaza border town of Rafah.
On Friday April 11, Tom Hurndall and a group of activists were in the area, having planned to set up a peace tent on one of the nearby roads to block Israeli tank patrols.
At an Israeli checkpoint the army states that it came under fire from Palestinian militants and returned fire, causing Hurndall's group of nine activists to abandon their protest and seek cover.
Dressed in a fluorescent orange ISM vest, Tom was at the end of a Rafah street observing an earthen mound where a score of children were playing. As Israeli army rifle fire hit the mound, the children fled.
But three, aged between four and seven, were paralyzed by fear, right in the line of fire, and Tom rushed to help them. After successfully taking a boy to safety, Tom returned for the girls.
Rushing to rescue them, he bent down to put his arm round one of the two when an Israeli soldier in the tower took his aim, firing a large caliber sniper bullet directly into Tom's head.
After a two-hour delay on the border, Tom was rushed to a specialist hospital in Be'ersheva.
After nearly two months by his hospital bedside in Israel, Tom's family were allowed to bring him back to the UK. The brain injury left him in a vegetative state, until he died on January 13 2004.
Tom was in full view of the tower, and was wearing a high visibility fluorescent orange vest.
The embassies of ISM activists had been informed of their presence in the area, and they had told the Israeli military.
Hurndall was one of 12 members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) who went to the Rafah refugee camp on the Egyptian border to protest at continued Israeli shooting in the area, said ISM member Nick Smith, according to Electronic Intifida.
His name was Tom, but he was amicably known as 'Tab'
"His name was Thomas Hurndall and he was from London. When he arrived, we already had an English guy named Tom so he chose the nickname 'Tab', and that is how I knew him.
Tab was incredibly passionate about protecting people when and where they needed it most," wrote Joe Smith of the ISM.
"He said that he’d gotten extremely angry and determined after listening to gunfire while lying in his bed at the doctor’s house Rachel [Corrie] died protecting. He wanted to be in the most dangerous areas, not out of some martyr complex to die but simply because he knew that that is where internationals are most needed."
A month before Tom was shot, Rachel Corrie, an American diarist and International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activist was crushed to death by an Israeli armored bulldozer on March 16 2003. James Miller, a Welsh cameraman, producer, and director, was killed as well by an Israeli soldier on May 2 2003.
"What do I want from this life? What makes you happy is not enough. All the things that satisfy our instincts only satisfy the animal in us. I want to be proud of myself. I want more. I want to look up to myself and when I die, I want to smile because of the things I have done, not cry for the things I haven't done." — Tom Hurndall
Rest in power.