The Israeli army prevented an ambulance carrying the body of a US activist who was crushed to death by a bulldozer a day earlier from leaving the Gaza Strip, Palestinian security sources said.
Rachel Corrie, a volunteer from the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), was buried alive by an Israeli bulldozer on Sunday afternoon as she was trying to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian house in Rafah, on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
Corrie's parents were not able to fly from Washington DC to attend the funeral due to travel restrictions imposed by the United States on US citizens wishing to go to Israel in the context of an imminent war in Iraq.
They had asked that the body be cremated in Tel Aviv and her ashes flown back to the US. However, they declined to allow their daughter's remains to be transferred by the Israeli army or the US embassy, ISM activists said.
The activists said they had struck a deal with the army for three of them to accompany the body to Tel Aviv by ambulance. But Palestinian security sources said it was turned back by the soldiers manning the Sufa checkpoint between the Gaza Strip and Israel.
The ambulance was headed back to a European hospital between Khan Yunis and Rafah, they said.
The Israeli army regretted Corrie's death but the ISM movement and Palestinians who witnessed the incident said she was deliberately killed. - Sapa-AFP