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Palestine/Israel
News and Information
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| 7/06 | Israel’s New Weapons: July 2006 |
Israel has established a pattern of using horrible new experimental weapons when its escalations produce particularly chaotic situations. We saw this at the beginning of the Second Intifada (’Israel’s Poison Gas Attacks’, Feb-Mar 2001 – this research was used by the BBC in making ‘Israel’s Secret Weapon’), during the August 2003 destruction of Rafah (more gas of the 2001 type), and during an especially violent phase of the IDF’s repression of anti-wall protests in June, 2004 (’black’ knockout gas reported by Gush Shalom and others), to name but three incidents. They are doing it again, in Gaza and Lebanon. Here’s what I’ve been able to dig up so far. A new page featuring this content has been posted on the VTJP site: www.vtjp.org/report/Israels_New_Weapons.htm Israel’s New Weapons: July 2006 Palestinian injuries suggest Israel is using chemical weapons in Gaza The ministry called upon the international community and the humanitarian organizations to send an international medical community to examine the victims and confirm the truth about these banned weapons that Israel appears to be using. The ministry showed that most of the injuries which the hospitals receive result from huge explosions which cause burning and severing of limbs, including the inner parts of the body. This causes long term deformations. It is added that doctors in Gaza have been forced to amputate limbs of at least 12 injured Palestinians as a result of injuries sustained in the current Israeli offensive on the Strip. Israel ‘is using chemical ammunition’ Chemical or depleted uranium could have been used in producing the new type of ammunition according to Dr Jomaa Al Saqqa, head of the Emergency Unit at Gaza’s main medical facility, the Al Shifa Hospital. In a telephone interview, Al Saqqa told Gulf News that operation Summer Rain was not just the code name of a military operation launched by Israel against Gaza since June 26. “It is a live exercise on a new ammunition that, so far, has resulted in killing 50 Palestinians and injuring 200,” he said. He said he was not yet sure about the kind of chemical being used because the Israeli Army had bombed the only criminal laboratory in Gaza on the first day of the assault. Dr Saqqa who has been working in the Al Shifa Hospital for almost 10 years said he had never seen such wounds before. At the beginning of the Summer Rain operation I noticed that people’s wounds looked strange. I thought it was just because the attack was from a close distance or that the temperature of bullets penetrating the bodies of injured or killed people were so high they were causing burns. I later found out that all wounds referred to the hospital since the start of the operation were very similar. “I also noticed that despite the damage in internal soft tissue in the bodies of injured people, the fragments were not detected by X-ray. In other words, they had disappeared or dissolved inside the body.” Al Saqqa urged the international health authorities to come to Gaza and check the wounds of people in Al Shifa Hospital. “The situation is very bad because out of the 200 injuries there are 50 children who are suffering badly because of their internal wounds caused by the new kind of ammunition,” he said. Gulf News contacted the spokesman for the Israeli Army but he was not available for comment. Ministry of Health report on toxic Israeli weapons confirmed by Gaza City medical sources The doctor spoke on Thursday, giving the death count at 85 Palestinians in the Strip since the latest Israeli attack began. Among the dead are 34 children under the age of 13. And as of Thursday afternoon, 300 Palestinians are injured. Dr. Al Sakka told Voice of Palestine Radio that the Israeli army is using new types of non-conventional weapons against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip during the recent attacks. He said, “They are targeting the Palestinian body with unconventional weapons and with that comes a phenomena we have not seen before in any Israeli bombardment we have lived through for many years.” He continued, “The hospital is central and sees almost all cases of injuries and deaths as a result of Israeli against the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip. These Israeli bombings are entering the body and fragmenting, causing internal combustion leading to up to fourth degree internal burns, exposing the bone, and affecting the tissue and skin.” The doctor added, “These tissues die, they do not survive, which obliges us to perform arm or leg amputations, and there are fragments which penetrate the body and do not show up on X-rays. When entering the body they spark like a combustion firearm, but not chemically. They seem radioactive.” He confirmed that there were dozens of wounded legs and arms. Many of them had been burned from the inside, and distorted to the point that they cannot return to life again. Yesterday, Wednesday, was one of the most bloody of all in the recent attacks. Israeli forces killed 25 Palestinians. Dr. Al Sakka said, “It is escalating day after day. Yesterday alone Israeli forces killed 25 and injured dozens. Among them so many were children.” Dr. Al Sakka revealed that the Israelis completely destroyed by the lab which would help in diagnosing such cases. “We no longer have the ability to make these examinations on phenomena that we see is not normal.” He called on the international community to examine the latest weapons however the doctor reported that “no one has lifted a finger.” Dr. Al Sakka complained that he did not see any foreign medical institution interested in the use of new weapons and their affects on the human body. He said, “What we found were journalists who came to take pictures, but as for the medical community, nothing.” Israel intensifies Gaza action Israel has begun fresh air strikes in the Gaza Strip after pledging to intensify its military offensive on the territory that has killed 51 Palestinians in two weeks. One Palestinian was killed and four others wounded in a series of Israeli air strikes in the northern industrial zone of Bait Hanun, medics said on Tuesday. The Israeli military confirmed an air raid in the Bait Hanun area of northern Gaza, the site of two earlier strikes on Tuesday. Israeli aircraft also carried out two overnight air strikes against a bridge in the northern Gaza Strip and against a “gunman” west of the Karni transit point for goods entering and leaving the Palestinian territory, a spokesman said. Ground troops are massed on the eastern and northern border of the impoverished territory – one of the most densely populated areas on earth – and are also stationed east of Gaza City and in the south near a defunct airport. Israel says the massive operation is to secure the release of a captured soldier on June 25, and halting Palestinian rocket attacks. Palestinian medics said on Tuesday that patients treated in Shifa hospital in Gaza and bodies at the mortuary presented unusual burns, raising concerns that Israel was using chemical weapons. Meanwhile, Israeli defence sources said the government had given the military the green light to continue and, if necessary, intensify the so-called Summer Rain offensive with infantry and armour poised to carry out “in depth” incursions. The approval was granted during consultations late on Monday between Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, and the defence minister, Amir Peretz, who faced their biggest test since the new Israeli government took office on May 4. Olmert is due to hold talks with military commanders on Tuesday with a view to continuing the offensive, the largest operation since Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip in September. Chemical weapons? “Even bodies of the injured have been almost completely burnt. They have been deformed in a very ugly way that we have never seen before,” he told Aljazeera channel. Al-Saqaa, who heads the hospital’s emergency service, said relatives had been unable to identify the dead victims. “When we try to X-ray dead bodies, we find no trace of the shrapnel that hit the person killed,” he said, adding that the bodies seemed to have been chemically burnt. “We are sure that Israel is using a new chemical or radioactive weapon in the new operation. More than 25% of the injured are children, aged under 16.” Four teenagers playing football were among the dead on Monday. At least 51 Palestinians have been killed since the operation started two weeks ago. An Israeli soldier also died as a result of “friendly fire”, according to the Israeli military. Doctors Report Unusual Weapon Used in Gaza Missiles fired from Apache helicopters killed at least one person and seriously injured two others in Biet Hanoun today. Israeli tanks shelled the main bridge leading to Biet Hanoun, destroying it and damaging several nearby houses. Meanwhile, Palestinian medics are now saying that patients at the Shifa hospital in Gaza city and some bodies at the local morgue have unusual burns, raising concerns that Israel was using chemical weapons in its attacks on the Gaza Strip. Dr Jumaa Al Saqa the PR person in the hospital: “When the shrapnel hit the body, it causes very strong burns that destroy the tissues around the bones. When these shrapnel enters the body, it burns and destroys internal organs, like the liver, kidneys, and the spleen and other organs and makes saving the wounded almost impossible. As a surgeon, I have seen thousands of wounds during the Intifada, but nothing was like this weapon.” Poison Gas Used on Villages in South Lebanon July 20, 2006 — WMR reported that the Israeli military was using poison gas on villages in south Lebanon. According to a former U.S. weapons expert who served in Iraq, the artillery shell in a photo taken in Lebanon (below) is a chemical weapon delivery device. It is being handled by an Israeli Defense Force soldier and Hebrew lettering can be clearly seen on the armored vehicle. Another chemical weapons shell of the same type can be seen lying on the ground to the right. It is not known what type of chemical is in the chemical canister, however, gas dropped by the Israelis in villages in southern Lebanon has resulted in severe vomiting among the civilian population. Media commentators have scoffed that Israel, with its relatively unique history, would ever use chemical weapons or poison gas in any war. It is precisely because of that perception that they are using such weapons. The deniability factor prevents the media from taking seriously the credible reports of banned weapons being used by the Israelis. Wayne Madsen is a former U.S. Naval officer who was assigned to the National Security Agency during the Reagan administration. Depleted Uranium, Gas Reported in Lebanon Meanwhile, Israeli government spokespersons and Bush administration officials took to the Sunday morning talking head programs in Washington to defend Israel’s barbarous actions. The networks failed to present the views of Lebanese government spokespersons. Israel’s and the Bush administration’s line is that Israeli attacks are “precision targeted.” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pointedly refused to criticize Israel on ABC’s This Week. Israeli Kadima (ex-Likud) Prime Minister Ehud Olmert joins Ariel Sharon in annals of Israeli leaders who committed war crimes in Lebanon. American media is failing to report that the Israeli attacks on Lebanon and Gaza, like the U.S. attacks in Iraq, are violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention and Additional Protocols governing military attacks on civilians by governments that are parties to the conventions: – Civilians are not to be subject to attack. This includes direct attacks on civilians and indiscriminate attacks against areas in which civilians are present. – There is to be no destruction of property unless justified by military necessity. – Warring parties must not use or develop biological or chemical weapons Other Recent Reports of Chemical Warfare in Occupied Palestine: Poison Gas Attacks Tear Gas Additional Threats More |
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