An Israeli Army bulldozer today crushed to death an American woman who had kneeled in the dirt to prevent the armored vehicle from destroying a Palestinian home in the southern Gaza Strip, witnesses and hospital officials said.
The Israeli military said the driver of the bulldozer had not seen the woman, and called it a ''very regrettable accident.''
The woman, Rachel Corrie, 23, from Olympia, Wash., was among eight Americans and Britons who had been acting has ''human shields'' to try to stop the almost daily house demolitions by Israeli forces in Rafah, a town on Gaza's border with Egypt.
When the bulldozer approached a house today, Ms. Corrie, who was wearing a bright orange jacket, dropped to her knees, a practice that members of the group to which she belonged, the International Solidarity Movement, have used repeatedly, her colleagues at the scene said.
As the bulldozer reached her without slowing up, she began to rise, but was trapped beneath a pile of dirt generated by its blade and the blade itself, said one member of the group, Tom Dale, who said he was standing about 30 feet away.
''We were shouting and waving our arms at the driver,'' said Mr. Dale, who is British. ''We even had a megaphone. But the bulldozer kept going until she was under the body or the tracks of the bulldozer.''
The bulldozer stopped for a few seconds and pulled back, Mr. Dale added. Her colleagues rushed to Ms. Corrie, who was bleeding from the head and face and badly wounded, but still breathing.
An ambulance took her to Najar Hospital, where she died. She had a fractured skull and other injuries, said Dr. Ali Moussa, a hospital administrator.
At the time Ms. Corrie was run over, she was in an open area in front of the house, Mr. Dale said. The bulldozer came from some distance away, and ''there was nothing to obscure the driver's view,'' he said.
But Capt. Jacob Dallal, an army spokesman, said that the armored bulldozer had small windows and limited visibility, and that the driver had not been aware that Ms. Corrie was in his path.
In a statement, the Israeli military said soldiers ''were dealing with a group of protesters who were acting very irresponsibly, putting everyone in danger -- the Palestinians, themselves and our forces -- by intentionally placing themselves in a combat zone.''
About an hour before Ms. Corrie was killed, troops fired tear gas and shot into the air during a confrontation with the protesters at a nearby house, both Mr. Dale and the Israeli military said.
Correction: March 26, 2003, Wednesday A picture caption on March 17 with an article about an American protester who was crushed by an Israeli Army bulldozer in Gaza referred incorrectly to the bulldozer shown. It was one that the protester, Rachel Corrie, had earlier tried to stop from destroying a Palestinian home. It was not the one that killed her.
