A NATION was left in shock and mourning after a young nurse was shot dead while volunteering on Friday.
Israeli forces killed Palestinian nurse Razan al-Najar as she was helping a wounded protester at the Gaza border, according to health officials and a witness.
The next day, thousands of Palestinians took to the streets for the young medic’s funeral.
At the same time, online outrage rapidly built against an American woman who was accused of being responsible for her death.
THOUSANDS GATHER FOR NURSE’S FUNERAL
Israeli forces killed a Palestinian nurse on Friday as she tried to help a wounded protester at the Gaza border, witnesses said.
Razan al-Najar, a 21-year-old volunteer medic, was shot as she ran toward the fortified border fence, east of the south Gaza city of Khan Yunis, in a bid to reach a casualty, a witness said.
Wearing a white uniform, “she raised her hands high in a clear way, but Israeli soldiers fired and she was hit in the chest,” the witness, who requested anonymity, told Reuters.
Gazan medical officials said at least 100 Palestinians were wounded by army gunfire during Friday’s mass demonstrations.
In a separate statement, the Israeli military said its troops had acted to disperse “thousands of rioters” at five locations.
It said that “an IDF (Israel Defence Forces) vehicle was fired upon and a suspect was identified crossing the security fence in the northern Gaza Strip and planting a grenade which exploded as he returned to the Strip”.
Ms al-Najar’s death brought to 119 the number of Palestinians killed in weekly demonstrations launched on March 30 in the Gaza Strip, an enclave controlled by the Islamist group Hamas and long subject to grinding Israeli and Egyptian embargoes.
A statement from Gaza’s Health Ministry mourned Ms al-Najar as a “martyr”.
There have been no Israeli casualties during the border confrontations, but Israel has reported extensive damage to farmland from firebomb-bearing kites flown over from Gaza.
THE WOMAN ACCUSED OF THE MURDER
Shortly after news of the attack broke, a photo of a young woman in military gear went viral.
The woman, known as Rebecca Rum — a 24-year-old from Boston and former trained fighter for the Israeli Defence Force — was accused of being responsible for the attack, prompting a storm of online fury.
Ms Rum addressed the controversy in a video uploaded to Facebook, saying she had nothing to do with it.
She said the Facebook page ‘Freedom for Gaza’, which has over 100,000 followers, erroneously shared her photo and attributed the attack to her.
“They posted a photo of me saying I was an IDF soldier who killed a Gazan. This has led to hundreds of hate messages and death threats to my life and to my friends’ life,” she said.
“The truth is I am an educator and I haven’t served in the IDF for years.”
She told the Jerusalem Post people had “taken my face and made it a symbol of hate”.
“I am really sorry that they lost their daughter. The loss of a life is always a tragedy,” she said. “But that is separate from the fact that they need to check their facts as spreading lies will not get anyone anywhere. I really try to get to know and understand the other side. People took my face and made it a symbol of hate and that is totally against what I stand for.”
Ms Rum said herself, her friends and family received a “slew of hate messages”, adding that she is “still getting hateful messages we speak”.
According to the newspaper, Freedom for Gaza later updated the post to say it was “only a comparison” which “clearly did not say that Rebecca murdered Razan”. The post appears to have since been deleted.
The image of the former soldier appeared to have been taken from the Israel Defense Forces’ official Facebook page, in a post published on May 27, 2014.
It’s still not known who exactly was responsible for Ms al-Najar’s death.
The IDF says it is continuing to investigate the case, but claimed the shooting wasn’t intentional.
“The IDF (Israel Defence Forces) constantly works to draw operational lessons and reduce the number of casualties in the area of the Gaza Strip security fence. Unfortunately, the Hamas terror organisation deliberately and methodically places civilians in danger,” it said in a statement.
Read the full article at the Herald Sun.