Are they still using “flechette” bombs in Gaza?
It has reportedly happened, again, in Gaza on 21 July – and this report comes via the International Solidarity Movement:
“This is a mother describing to us her daughter, 9-year-old Sammah [Eid El-Massry]as she came in to her home at 4pm after the Israeli army reportedly shelled and fired four bombs into and around a residential area in Beit Hanoun, Northern Gaza: ‘She came in through and it wasn’t clear she was injured. Suddenly a lot of blood came from her nose and she vomited. All of the family saw this – her little brothers were very scared. She had just been playing in the front of the house’ … . She is now in a semi-critical condition in hospital, suffering extensive blood loss and very low haemoglobin. She was hit by shrapnel and ‘flechettes’ from a nail bomb that landed 100m away, causing internal bleeding to the chest, severe head trauma and nails embedded in her body … The doctor told us she was in a ‘semi-critical’ condition with severe chest, head and abdominal pain. Her blood-loss was a major concern, arriving at the hospital with 7.5 haemoglobin levels, 4-6 below the normal levels, the problem exacerbated by the fact that she, like three of her brothers, already suffered from a blood condition known as Thalassemia for which the drug Exjade is in extremely short supply due to the Israeli blockade. She was clearly in pain and confused, trying to remove the nasal tubes. Her mother showed us the bandages on her chest. ‘She was in a very bad condition when she arrived – it’s difficult for children and very traumatic to insert a chest tube. Very painful. Blood was mainly coming from the chest. We will have to perform surgery and we will further explore her abdominal pain’, the doctor tells us. This is not the first time the family was attacked, Sammah’s 4-year-old brother Ryad Eid El-Massry was injured during Operation Cast Lead” …
[And now, following the attack on Wednesday, there were two more children from the same family who were also injured and receiving treatment in the hospital] Azzam Mohammed El-Massry (aged 11) has a severely fractured left elbow and Ebrahim Wasseem El-Massry (aged 4) has light injuries to his abdomen …
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[The fourth wounded child isHaitham Thaer Qasem, a four year old boy and a first and only child. He was sleeping on the hospital bed, occasionally gasping for breath through the strapping around his nose. He had suffered deep nasal trauma, and flechette darts from the nail bomb were still embedded in his tiny body, where they had pierced his back, right elbow and right leg. He was 200m from the impact of the bomb. In his hospital ward his mother was standing to one side crying quietly …
Two young men were killed: Mohammad Al-Kafarneh, 23, from severe shrapnel injuries in his back and chest and Kasim Al-Shinbary, 19, caused by injuries from nails embedded in his skull and shrapnel wounds to the back. It was unclear earlier whether they were resistance fighters or if they were civilians”.
All of them – the two dead young men, and the four injured children – are they all “militants”?
This was published by the ISM here.
Filed under: Gaza, Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, International Law, Israel
Marian wrote:
“All of them – the two dead young men, and the four injured children – are they all “militants”?
No, they are not: two terrorists were spotted by IDF just moments before lunching Qasam rockets on civilians in Israel, and were hit by helicopters fire. The terrorists used near Palestinian homes like a human shield (it’s their common practice)- in your report mentioned 100 meter distance from the houses to the lunch position.
So, is the Israel only to blame in wounding 4 innocent children?
This can’t be by any means called a “journalism” to naming a member of the Islamic Jihad group as “young men”
Whatcha talkin’ about? How do you know they are members of Islamic Jihad? Dehumanization leads to atrocities…
And, just asking (though I note that the ISM report also suggests it is a possiblity) I would also like to ask how your colleague knows for sure — what proof is there — that they were JUST ABOUT to launch Qasam rockets?
Is this the best way to deal with threats?
I know and you know how were these 2 “young men”:
http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/multimedia/photo/funeral-al-kafarna-gaza
You should make a minimal research before you posting on such sensitive themes.
one minute googling was bring you a clear evidences that those were 2 terrroists from Islamic Jihad branch (al-Quds) group, and not just 2 “young men”
I can ask my colleague, but probably they couldn’t answer your question too (they are just engineers in one of Israeli high-tech company like me)
To the Nikkor1 who commented at 2:29 – this photo does not constitute proof of anything to me, and it was published, of course AFTER this young man was killed.
He was killed, therefore, BEFORE this photo — which constitutes proof to you — was taken and published.
There have been too many killings.
To the Nikkor1 who commented at 2:40 – this is borderline abuse, something which cannot be tolerated. What you call “minimal research” here does not bring clear evidence that these two victims are terrorists or members of any group.
And making claims just because you would like to believe it, or because you would prefer it, is not journalism.
In any case, whatever else they might have been, they are (or were) two young men.
The photo I linked to, only proofs they were a members al-Quds brigade (the militant branch of the terrorist organization Islamic Jihad).
And this specific person was killed in this incident (21.07.10).
That’s it.
If you calling the demand to publish objective information about Israeli-Palestinian conflict “borderline abuse”, let me to argue with you.
You are the journalist, not me (I’m a private person). So, you are obliged to research about what are your posting, and to verify the information from more than one source.
If you are only reposting the articles from other mass media, without to make minimal efforts to verify them- I would call you a “blogger”.
Dear Nikkor 1, the photo you linked to does not prove that the victim was a member of al-Quds brigade. If you really knew what a journalist is supposed to verify, you would understand that.
Even if you provided two sources that say this dead young man is a member of al-Quds brigade, that does not constitute proof that he is.
But, even if you had iron-clad proof that positively identified the dead body as a former member of al-Quds brigade — proof that neither of us seems to have — that is not proof that he was JUST ABOUT to launch projectiles from Gaza into Israel,.
It seems that, for you, a journalist is someone who agrees with what you say, and that’s it. Otherwise you berate the person who is the object of your attention in all kinds of ways — including by issuing some kind of fatwa saying that he or she is a “blogger” but not a “journalist”. In this case, the distinction is devoid of sense.
I was beginning to develop a kind of fondness for some of you guys, particularly when you provide useful information — including, of course, links in English.
But it is abuse when you simply begin to call somebody all kinds of names because they do not agree with your claims.
Yeah, it’s my fault: I shouldn’t treat a blog like a “real” media. You have a right to be biased to the Palestinian side.