First of all, Brian did not go out into the street at night, when he was shot. It was actually late afternoon or early evening, around 5 or 6. It was light out and Brian was wearing a bright orange, reflective vest. Tobias Karlson, who was with him is a Swede and is white and blonde, he was wearing a white t-shirt. ISM volunteers had been working in the area for months and the Israeli troops were well aware of their presence. Brian and Tobias were obviously unarmed and when the APC and the tank approached, they held their arms out to the side, to display their empty hands. The shooting from the tank, that Brian and five other witnesses described as being fired directly at Tobias and Brian, was completely unprovoked. Brian describes the Israeli troops as young, angry men that have a slanted and racist view of the Palestinians whose towns they occupy. It is not unbelievable that young, angry men with guns would shoot at people without provocation, because they view them as assisting the enemy. Even if that assistance is nonviolent.
As for the tunnels that Becky mentions. There was no such tunnels under the house that Rachel was defending. In fact human rights groups, such as Human Rights Watch state that these tunnels do exist, but that the demolition of homes is all out of proportion to the number of the tunnels that exist. Hundreds of homes have been demolished in Rafah in which there were no such tunnels. One wonders what the Israeli troops are doing in Gaza in the first place. These are not their towns and cities that they occupy and shoot up. These are Palestinian areas. The only Israelis in Gaza are living in illegal settlements. A couple thousand settlers living illegally next to 1.3 million Palestinians, are the excuse for this massive military assault in Gaza. If these settlers were pulled out, then Israel could defend it's true border, on the Green Line and not waste so many Palestinian and Israeli lives trying to take land and occupy a people that simply want their freedom.