Autopsy suggests British cameraman was shot by Israeli army

Reporters Without Borders called today for the punishment of those responsible for the death of British freelance cameraman James Miller on 2 May after an autopsy revealed he had been shot from the front as he was filming troops in the Gaza Strip . The finding, by Israel's national forensic institute, tended to confirm the account of witnesses at the scene who said troops opened fire on him and other journalists wearing jackets marked "press" and waving a white flag as they approached the troops. Earlier, the deputy Israeli military commander in Gaza, Col. Avi Levy, said his men had begun shooting after anti-tank weapons were fired at them and that Miller may have been killed by Palestinian gunfire. "We are glad the autopsy was done," said Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard. "The investigation must now work to establish who was responsible for the shooting. Those who were must be publicly punished and the impunity enjoyed by Israeli soldiers must end." Miller had been filming Israeli troops destroying a house in Rafah. The troops said they later found him lying on the ground with a neck wound and that he died while waiting for an army helicopter to take him to an Israeli hospital. The army expressed its regret but said he had taken a serious risk being in a war zone. He is the second journalist killed in Israel this year, apparently by army gunfire, and the fifth since the second Intifada began in September 2000.