From the Jerusalem Post (online, Lenny Ben-David), 15/5/2010:
One of the stars of the Rachel Corrie’s welcoming committee will be Bianca Zammit, a Maltese woman member of ISM and Gaza resident, who was shot in the thigh by an IDF soldier during a demonstration close to the Gaza-Israel border on April 24. Like Corrie, Zammit was devoted to the Palestinians of Gaza, writing extensively about the plight of Palestinian prisoners in Israel. And like Corrie, she was determined to challenge the IDF, even if it killed her.
Zammit’s demonstration took place near the spot where two soldiers were shot one month earlier as they counterattacked Palestinian terrorists setting bombs along the border fence. Zammit and her fellow demonstrators charged dangerously into a “no-go zone” close to the fence in as provocative an act as Corrie and her friends throwing themselves in front of the blades of bulldozers seven years ago.
The audio on the YouTube clips from the confrontation indicates that Zammit and friends charged the Israeli line to the calls of “Allahu Akbar” and to the broadcast of hits from the jihadi hit parade, “Where are the millions? Allah is with us, stronger and bigger than the sons of Zion,” and “Let us fall as martyrs, don’t worry.” (Translations courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch.)
Zammit’s chutzpah is on display when she complained to The Times of Malta, “Similar protests were held in the past and the Israelis usually fired in the air.”
Indeed, the sounds of shots suggest that the soldiers fired repeatedly in the air prior to a few well-placed shots at the demonstrators’ legs. (Zammit’s wounds – entry and exit – were just beneath the surface of her skin. There was little bleeding, and she showed few signs of shock.) Even on her way to the hospital, Zammit was able to continue her anti-Israel diatribe. Within an hour she was up and walking as her friends’ photo shows.