Foreign volunteer killed by Palestinian sniper gunfire from within Gaza; man was shot as he was working in the fields of Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha. Hamas claims responsibility

Carlos Andres Chavez, a 20-year-old volunteer from Ecuador, was killed after he was shot by a Palestinian sniper from within the Gaza Strip as he was working in the fields of the Ein Hashlosha kibbutz located near the coastal territory.

The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, took responsibility for the shooting.

Magen David Adom paramedics arrived to the scene while the man was still alive but seriously injured. They tried to save his life but were unsuccessful and were forced to pronounce him dead.

Yochai (Yochi) Kopler, a kibbutz resident who was out in the field when the shooting began, described the incident. "We started fleeing from the gunfire and, on the way, I heard the volunteer scream in Spanish: 'The bastards shot me from behind!'

"I saw that he has hit in the lower back and was bleeding, I pulled him halfway inside the vehicle and quickly hurried to the infirmary," he said.

Kopler added that the evacuation was carried out under heavy fire. "I pulled him inside the car and started to drive all the while they were shooting at us with light machine guns and (firing) mortars -- the bullets were literally whizzing by our heads."

The woman in charge of kibbutz volunteers at Ein Hashlosha, Annie Rotman, said that Chavez had arrived to the kibbutz a few months ago with a group of volunteers from South America in order to work and travel around the country. She said he had fallen in love with Israel and wanted to serve in the IDF...

Israel killed at least 18 Palestinians, nearly all Hamas militants, in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, in violence the Palestinian Authority said was a "slap in the face" to President George W. Bush's peace efforts.

A volunteer from Ecuador, working on an Israeli kibbutz, or farming community, bordering the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, was killed by a Palestinian sniper near the frontier fence. Hamas claimed responsibility for shooting the man...

..."There was a massacre today against our people, and we say to the world that our people will not remain silent against such crimes," said Abbas.

In a statement, the West Bank-based Palestinian government said Israel's "ugly crimes were a slap in the face" to efforts by Bush and the international community to resume peacemaking that would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state...