Is
Gaza A Testing Ground For Experimental Weapons?
By Jonathan Cook
14 January,
2009
Countercurrents.org
Nazareth:
Concerns about Israel’s use of non-conventional and experimental
weapons in the Gaza Strip are growing, with evasive comments from
spokesmen and reluctance to allow independent journalists inside the
tiny enclave only fuelling speculation.
The most prominent controversy is over the use of shells containing
white phosphorus, which causes horrific burns when it comes into contact
with skin. Under international law, phosphorus is allowed as a smokescreen
to protect soldiers but treated as a chemical weapon when used against
civilians.
The Israeli army maintains that it is using only weapons authorised
in international law, though human rights groups have severely criticised
Israel for firing phosphorus shells over densely populated areas of
Gaza.
But there might be other unconventional weapons Israel is using out
of sight of the watching world.
One such munition may be Dime, or dense inert metal explosive, a weapon
recently developed by the US army to create a powerful and lethal
blast over a small area.
The munition is supposed to still be in the development stage and
is not yet regulated. There are fears, however, that Israel may have
received a green light from the US military to treat Gaza as a testing
ground.
“We have seen Gaza used as a laboratory for testing what I call
weapons from hell,” said David Halpin, a retired British surgeon
and trauma specialist who has visited Gaza on several occasions to
investigate unusual injuries suffered by Gazans.
“I fear the thinking in Israel is that it is in its interests
to create as much mutilation as possible to terrorise the civilian
population in the hope they will turn against Hamas.”
Gaza’s doctors, including one of the few foreigners there, Mads
Gilbert, a Norwegian specialist in emergency medicine working at Al
Shifa hospital in Gaza City, report that many of the injuries they
see are consistent with the use of Dime.
Wounds from the weapon are said to be distinctive. Those exposed to
the blast have severed or melted limbs, or internal ruptures, especially
to soft tissue such as the abdomen, that often lead to death.
There is said to be no shrapnel apart from a fine “dusting”
of minute metal particles on damaged organs visible when autopsies
are carried out. Survivors of a Dime blast are at increased risk of
developing cancer, according to research carried out in the United
States.
Traditional munitions, by contrast, cause large wounds wherever shrapnel
penetrates the body.
“The power of the explosion dissipates very quickly and the
strength does not travel long, maybe 10 metres, but those humans who
are hit by this explosion, this pressure wave, are cut in pieces,”
Dr Gilbert said in a recent interview.
This is not the first time concerns about Israel’s use of Dime
have surfaced in Gaza. Doctors there reported strange injuries they
could not treat, and from which patients died unexpectedly days later,
during a prolonged wave of Israeli air strikes in 2006.
A subsequent Italian investigation found Israel was using a prototype
weapon similar to Dime. Samples from victims in Gaza showed concentrations
of unusual metals in their bodies.
Yitzhak Ben-Israel, the former head of the Israeli military’s
weapons development programme, appeared familiar with the weapon,
telling Italian TV that the short radius of the explosion helped avoid
injuries to bystanders, allowing “the striking of very small
targets”.
Israeli denials about using weapons banned by international law would
not cover Dime because it is not yet officially licensed.
It will be difficult to investigate claims that non-conventional weapons
have been used in Gaza until a ceasefire is agreed, but previous inquiries
have shown that Israel resorts to such munitions.
The Israeli human rights group B’Tselem has recorded numerous
occasions when the Israeli army has fired flechette shells, both in
Lebanon and Gaza. The shell releases thousands of tiny metal darts
that cause horrible injuries to anyone out in the open.
A Reuters cameraman, Fadel Shana, filmed the firing of such a shell
from an Israeli tank in Gaza in April, moments before its flechettes
killed him.
Miri Weingarten, a spokeswoman for Physicians for Human Rights, said
they were watching out for use of a new flechette-type weapon the
Israeli army has developed called kalanit (anemone). An anti-personnel
munition, the shell sends out hundreds of small discs.
Israel appears to have used a range of controversial weapons during
its attack on Lebanon in 2006. After initial denials, an Israeli government
minister admitted that the army had fired phosphorus shells, and the
Israeli media widely reported millions of cluster bombs being dropped
over south Lebanon.
There are also suspicions that Israel may have used uranium-based
warheads. A subsequent inquiry by a British newspaper found elevated
levels of radiation at two Israeli missile craters.
Sarit Michaeli, a spokeswoman for B’Tselem, said her organisation
had not yet been able to confirm which weapons were being used in
Gaza in the current attacks. She added, however, that Israel’s
denials about using non-conventional munitions should not be relied
on.
“It is true, as the army spokespeople say, that weapons such
as phosphorus and flechette shells are not expressly prohibited. But
our view is that such weapons, which do not distinguish between combatants
and non-combatants, cannot be used legally in a densely populated
area like Gaza.”
Reports this month revealed that the United States has been organising
massive shipments of arms to Israel, though a Pentagon spokesman denied
they were for use in Gaza.
Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in
Nazareth, Israel. His latest book is “Disappearing Palestine:
Israel's Experiments in Human Despair” (Zed Books). His website
is www.jkcook.net.
A version of this article originally appeared in The National (www.thenational.ae),
published in Abu Dhabi.