Reviews

The Only House Left Standing: The Middle East Journals of Tom Hurndall by Robert Fisk, Tom Hurndall

hoboken's review

5.0

The photographs and writings of Tom Hurndall, 21-year-old British national shot in the head by an Israeli sniper in April 2003 while rescuing children from Israeli fire in Rafah, Gaza. He was on leave from university, learning to be a photojournalist. These are the photographs he took in Baghdad, where he'd gone to be a human shield during the Iraq-American War; in Amman, Jordan; and in Gaza. He never recovered consciousness and died nine months later in London after his parents had managed to take him home. His assassin was eventually convicted and sentenced to 8 years, one of the very few IDF murderers ever brought to book. Tom was killed three weeks after American Rachel Corrie was run over by an Israeli bulldozer while defending Palestinian houses the Israelis were trying to destroy. Ten days after Tom's death, BBC filmmaker James Miller was shot by the Israelis.