Dr Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor bravely working in Gaza, spoke some days ago of the effects of a horrific new weapon called DIME (Dense Inert Metal Explosive) bombs. See: The reality in Gaza (youtube) The Israeli military first used this experimental genotoxic weapon against Gaza in 2006.
Graphic photographs of injuries caused by DIME bombs in Gaza: What US bombs do to Arab flesh
Some quotes from the above site:
In these photos – taken in hospitals in Gaza during the months of July and August last – portraits are the bodies of people probably hit by bombs DIME (Dense Inert Metal Explosive). As the images appear to testify, the outbreak of these weapons would cause ‘ shock wave with an angle that hit the victims in the legs or genital area.
According to Dr Al-Joma Saqaa at the Al-Shifa in Gaza in the pictures would be found the metal powder that would make the wounds portrayed compatible with the supposed effects of the bombs DIME tungsten.
DIME bombs produce an unusually powerful blast within a relatively small area, spraying a superheated “micro-shrapnel” of powdered Heavy Metal Tungsten Alloy (HMTA). Scientific studies have found that HMTA is chemically toxic, damages the immune system, rapidly causes cancer, and attacks DNA (genotoxic).
The first reports about ‘Israel’s new weapon’ came from Dr Joma Al-Saqqa, chief of the emergency unit at Gaza’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa. Dr. Al-Saqqa said that Israel was using “a new ‘chemical’ weapon” and its siege was “a live exercise on a new ammunition”. He observed 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.”
“There were usually entry and exit wounds,” Dr. Al-Saqqa reported. “When the wounds were explored no foreign material was found. There was tissue death, the extent of which was difficult to determine…. A higher deep infection rate resulted with subsequent amputation. In spite of amputation there was a higher mortality.” The effects of the weapon seemed “radioactive”.
January 10, 2009 at 6:59 pm
I do see some urgency created by thousands of missiles being fired into Israel. A military response seems the only immediate possibility.
Ham handed targeting, lack of publicly stated justification for some actions, the appearance of collective punishment, and the biblically inspired settlements in occupied territory clearly exacerbate fanatism, as is argued here.
But according to leaders of Hamas, the ones sending missiles, the most basic of underlying causes are the existence of Israel and the insistence by Jews of continuing to breathe.
January 10, 2009 at 7:11 pm
Also see: Dense Inert Metal Explosive (DIME) -ISRAEL used experimental weapons in Gaza
January 10, 2009 at 11:03 pm
Burr Deming, with respect:
The Truth about those Hamas Rockets
Hamas has the right to resistance against unlawful occupation. This right is enshrined in the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Is Israel Right to Try to Destroy Hamas? (Irish Times)
I do not believe Hamas’ aim is for Israeli Jews to stop breathing; it is for the dismantling of a Jewish state for the Jews, run by the Jews, in which Palestinians have become third class citizens in their own homeland. The treatment of Palestinians living in the Israeli state is utterly shameful. The refusal to grant Palestinian exiles the right to return to the homeland they were expelled from is no less disgraceful.
January 10, 2009 at 11:05 pm
A military response is not a necessity. Israel broke the truce first. Maybe they should try keeping their promises.Maybe they can try bargaining in good faith instead of trying to make life in Gaza a living hell.
But the fact is – you know it and I know it, that they want all the Palestinians dead or gone, so they can have the whole country and not let the original owners – the Palestinians (who are also, according to the new best-selling book, the REAL descendents of the ancient Israelis) have one square centimeter.
January 11, 2009 at 3:29 am
Israel is slowly expanding – this is the root cause of the conflict.
The rockets are resistance to a military occupation, the theft of land, resources, water, and an abuse of power.
January 11, 2009 at 5:16 am
I think you are all a bunch of anti-Semitic twits, with no understanding of history. There has been fighting in that area since before the dawn of civilization.
Israel is a UN creation, to find a home for the displaced Jews from WWII. Your anti-semitic responses mirror the same race hatred that spawned the state in the first place.
If Europe had been able to live with a minority class that rose above slave class, there would have been no need for a Jewish state.
I’m not Jewish, but I understand their dilemma, and support their desire to survive endless hostilities from the Muslim world.
January 11, 2009 at 7:58 am
The only anti-Semitic twit here is you “chuck brown.” Europeans Jews are no Semites, Arabs are. Go read a history book.
The UN partition of Palestine was illegal and the Palestinians owe nothing for Europe’s crimes.
Piss off, zionist scumbag.
January 11, 2009 at 12:59 pm
Hi Sharper,
Please note that I wish to keep this site free from abusive language. Though I appreciate the gist of what you’re saying.
Chuck Brown:
Israel was created by the UN, was it? The UN ethnically cleansed Palestine of Palestinians, crushing children’s skulls with clubs in the process? Interesting revisionist approach to history you have there.
January 11, 2009 at 2:34 pm
To Chuck Brown and those who think like him: what about Palestinians’ rights to survive massacres and atrocities caused by Zionists? Nothing justifies killings in such atrocious methods. Nothing justifies using genotoxic DIME weapons against UNARMED civilans, women and children. How hypocritical that the Jews kept launching thier Holocast campaigns while they themselves partake in anti-human genocides that the mind can not even imagine.
January 11, 2009 at 8:15 pm
You know, in these past few days I have seen so many ignorant comments all over the place. From WordPress, to Yahoo! buzz, to Shine, etc.
People who could not even point to Gaza on a map are jumping out and making judgements based on their not-so-educated points of view.
I am ashamed of what I see, especially of the ignorance shown by a lot of American people.
January 11, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Sorry, I should have been more specific. 🙂
Israel is also using depleted uranium and white phosphorus, both of which are illegal in every country except in the USA & Israel.
Depleted uranium has a radioactive half-life of 4.5 million years. When white phosphorus comes in contact with the skin, it burns all the way down to the bone! Israel is using this on civilians!! It’s complete insanity!
These are the real weapons of mass destruction and I’m sure you know who the real terrorists are.
January 12, 2009 at 11:49 am
Hi dianarn,
Even this Jewish professor, an Israeli army veteran, is calling Israel a rogue state: An eye for an eyelash.
January 25, 2009 at 9:31 am
All this would end if Israel renounced Zionism just as Germany renounced Nazism. Israel should recognize the universal rights of the Palestinian people including the right of return and to be treated as equals. This should be enshrined in a new democratic constitution instead of the current Nazi state of Israel.
January 25, 2009 at 11:38 am
So we know that Israel is using DIME, depleted uranium and phosphorous-all banned by the Geneva convention, of course…is anyone aware that there is an outcry about usage of biological and chemical warfare through nanoweapons? Go check out sites on nanotechnology. That’s their latest, people.