Collateral dammage, fosforbommen en Wikipedia

Collatoral dammage noemen ze dat dan. Of verdediging tegen raketaanvallen. Veel meer hoeft daar niet meer rond gezegd te worden.

'Phosphorus wounds' alarm Gazans

By Aleem Maqbool

BBC News, Gaza City

 

Sabah Abu Halima suffered terrible burns on her arms, legs and torso

Staring straight ahead and rocking steadily backwards and forwards in her hospital bed, Sabah Abu Halima lists the fate of each of her nine children.

"Abed, 14 years old, was decapitated," she says. "Shaheed, one year and three months, was in my arms when the fire took her…"

Sabah explains that her husband and four of her children died when their house in northern Gaza was shelled during the recent Israeli offensive.

Many of the rooms in that house now lay dark and empty - blackened by fire.

The light fittings and power sockets have melted down the walls.

These burns were very severe, very deep, and became deeper and wider over time 

Dr Nafiz Abu Shabaan

A shaft of light coming from the ceiling of the corridor, and mangled steel, marks the entry point of one of the missiles.

Scrawled, in Arabic, on the wall of a bedroom is the statement: "From the Israeli Defence Forces, we are sorry."

But on the next wall, there is a patch of white where, Sabah's 20-year-old son Mahmoud tells us, had also been the words "nice underwear". He says he scrubbed them off in anger.

'Strange burns'

Hundreds were killed in the 22-day Israeli offensive, but it is the manner in which Sabah's relatives lost their lives, and the weapon used, that has attracted attention.

Sabah's family say Israeli troops wrote an apology in Arabic on their wall

Sabah herself has suffered terrible burns on her arms, legs and torso and is in considerable pain.

"There was fire, and so much white smoke," she says. "The missile melted my children. My daughter-in-law melted in front of my eyes."

Dr Nafiz Abu Shabaan, the head of the unit in which Sabah is being treated, says he has seen many victims with what he described as "strange burns".

"These burns were very severe, very deep, and became deeper and wider over time," he says. "In some cases, smoke came out of the wound, even after hours."

The cause of these types of injuries is believed, by visiting medical officials, to be Israel's use of shells containing white phosphorus.

Incendiary weapon

In another part of the city, at a former security compound flattened by the Israeli bombardment, Marc Garlasco, senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch, points out evidence that white phosphorus had been used.

"We're standing here right next to an M825A1, which is the US designation for their white phosphorus shell," he says.

"Manufactured in the US and sold to Israel, the shell here is unexploded, although it's cracked and you can see the phosphorus pouring out in kind of this yellow-orange colour."

"Around the area there are also some white phosphorus felt pieces," he adds.

"As the weapon explodes in mid-air, 116 pieces of felt doused in white phosphorus fall on a large area. These pieces are littered around here. If you kicked them open, they would begin to smoke and potentially reignite."

It's important that we investigate the use of white phosphorus, because it does appear that it was used incorrectly in a clear breach of Geneva Conventions 

Marc Garlasco, military analyst, Human Rights Watch

Controversial as it is, white phosphorus is not illegal, at least in an open battlefield setting, where it is used to mask troop movements, or set on fire areas of high brush that need clearing.

But the international convention on the use of incendiary weapons says it should not be used where there is a possibility of hitting civilians.

The compound sticks to human skin and will burn right through to the bone, causing death or leaving survivors with painful wounds which are slow to heal.

United Nations officials say it was used in the shelling of a school in which hundreds of civilians were taking refuge from the fighting, and fired at the UN's main headquarters in Gaza.

Eyewitnesses and victims talk of it being used on many other occasions in built-up areas.

Internal investigation

After initially denying that white phosphorus shells were fired in Gaza, some Israeli military officials have now acknowledged its use.

Analysts say the distinctively shaped plumes are indicative of white phosphorus

The army says it has started an internal investigation, the insistence being until now that no weapons were used illegally.

Human rights groups have meanwhile started their own research.

"It's important that we investigate the use of white phosphorus, because it does appear that it was used incorrectly in a clear breach of Geneva Conventions, " says Mr Garlasco.

"But as grave as the injuries caused by white phosphorus are, there are a number of weapons that were used in Gaza that killed and injured an awful lot more people," he adds.

"We have to look at the full variety of weapons that were used here, how they were employed and how they impacted on the civilian population."

Tot hier het verhaal. Maar dan ging ik even kijken wat de Wikipedia te vertellen heeft over fosforbommen. Het volgende dus:

Witte fosfor wordt gebruikt in brandbommen, rookbommen en als doelwitmarkering. Het is een zelfontbrandbare stof; bij contact branden huid en vlees weg. Bij contact met de huid reageert de stof met het water in de huid, waardoor zeer diepe en ernstige brandwonden ontstaan. (Het verbrandingsproduct is forsforpentoxide dat met vocht verder reageert tot fosforzuur.) Dit effect is vergelijkbaar met dat van napalm. Naast brandwonden kan de toxiciteit van witte fosfor ook schade aan belangrijke organen zoals lever, longen en hart veroorzaken. Fosforbranden kunnenniet met water geblust worden omdat de stof ook met water reageert, o.a. met de vorming vanfosfine.

Tijdens de Vietnamoorlog werd witte fosfor aangeduid met de codenaam Willy Pete (van de Engelse benaming white phosphorus). Het werd voornamelijk gebruikt voor het leggen van rookgordijnen.

Het Rode Kruis is een groot voorstander van een algeheel verbod op het gebruik van witte fosfor, ook al geldt het volgens internationale afspraken niet als een chemisch wapen.

In januari 2009 gebruikten zowel Israëlals de Palestijnse militanten van Hamas witte fosforbommen in hetconflict in de Gazastrook[2][3][4].

 

Die laatste alinea vond ik toch wel vreemd dus ging ik even Googlen.

'Hamas + fosforbommen'  gaven 7400 hits maar telkens ging het om fosfor gebruikt door Israël tegen Hamas (wat dus wil zeggen alle inwoners van Gaza. want we hebben zover ik weet nog geen intelligente fosfor die uit een massa mensen de Hamasstrijders kan pikken).

'Hamas gebruikt fosforbommen'  gaf 7460 hits maar ook telkens zoals hierboven.

Dit vond ik ook:

http://www.nwo-info.nl/

Daar tegenover staat de Israëlische propaganda, die ons wil wijsmaken dat het leger van Hamas, de democratisch verkozen regering van Palestina, zich schuldig maakt aan oorlogsmisdaden. Zo kopt het Israel National News:Gaza Terrorists Fire Phosphorus Shell. Zou Hamas tussen de puinhopen in Gaza soms een niet ontplofte fosforbom hebben gevonden en die hebben teruggeschoten naar het land van herkomst? Een dergelijk onzinnig bericht komt dan weer op Nujij te staan, onder de kop: Hamas gebruikt Fosfor. Daarmee zijn de feiten vakkundig omgedraaid.

 En ja, dan eens geklikt op de voetnoten op de Wikipagina zelf. Daar stond dan inderdaad het enige artikel dat spreekt over fosforbommen gebruikt door Hamas, tegen Israël. Toevallig komt het artikel wel uit Israël.

Wie soortgelijke artikels vindt van neutrale partijen mag hier gerust een reactie bij plaatsen.

 Naast de pers die blijkt eergisteren, onbetrouwbaar is, gaan we toch ook de Wikipedia met ene grotere korrel zout bekijken.