Gaza
Doctors Encounter
'Unexplained Injuries'
By Donald Macintyre
05 September, 2006
The Independent
Doctors in Gaza are reporting
what they say are unexplained injuries among the dead and wounded in
operations by the Israeli military, which have killed more than 200
Palestinians in the past nine weeks.
The World Health Organisation
(WHO) is considering whether there is a case for an investigation into
the injuries amid suspicions by the medics that the injuries were inflicted
by what they claim may have been unidentified "non-conventional"
weapons.
Beside especially severe
burning "down to the bones", the doctors say that, in other
cases, internal organs have been ruptured without any obvious sign of
shrapnel wounds.
While a report from the Hamas-run
Ministry of Health said the injuries raised the possibility Israel could
be using "unprecedented" projectiles with "radiant"
substances, the medics acknowledge that there is no proof so far of
their claims. They also admit that the difficulty of establishing the
exact cause of death is greatly exacerbated by the reluctance of most
bereaved Palestinian families to allow autopsies.
Dr Juma al Saqqa, the director
of public relations at Shifa Hospital, said the type of injuries presented
by some victims were "very strange" and added: "We think
this should be studied. In some cases we have opened the abdomen and
found very fragmented organs." He said this was despite X-rays
showing no shrapnel lodged in the patients' bodies. He said one, unsubstantiated
suggestion by sympathetic doctors consulted in Italy was that some injuries
might have been caused by phosphorus.
The concerns were aired at
the weekend by a group of Palestinian medics during a visit to Gaza
by a delegation from Physicians for Human Rights - Israel (PHR). The
delegation agreed to take away fragments of tissue from the bodies of
Palestinians killed during the recent military operations in Gaza for
possible analysis in Israel but urged the medics to seek an international
investigation.
Dr Ambrogio Manenti, the
head of the WHO's West Bank and Gaza office, said the organisation had
undertaken a short preliminary assessment of the claims and had now
referred the issue to the organisation's headquarters in Geneva so that
it can decide whether fuller investigation was appropriate. The Israel
Defence Forces said yesterday all its "weapons and ammunition are
legal under international law and conform with international standards".
It said it could not respond in greater detail without more information
about the injuries.
A leader of the PHR delegation,
Professor Zvi Bentwich, said PHR was focusing on raising the numbers
of patients allowed out of Gaza into Israel and Egypt for treatment
and the relief of equipment and medicine shortages because of frequent
closures of the main Karni crossing, and external training for Palestinian
medical staff.
PHR is pressing the Israeli
authorities to reduce the costs of patients being treated in Israel.
Professor Bentwich said the denial of external specialist treatment
to Palestinians was a denial "of the basic human right to health".
He added that military operations
since militants captured the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in June had
"exacerbated an already appalling situation".The army said
the attacks were aimed at releasing Cpl Shalit and halting the firing
ofrockets into Israel.
© 2006 Independent News
and Media Limited