International Solidarity Movement

Since the start of the massacre on Gaza (27 December 2009), the Israeli army has been utilizing new types of weapons against unarmed demonstrators in several villages around West Bank.

The 22-calibre live bullet, fired from the Rutger rifle, does not make a sound when fired. The bullet can only be heard by a low sweeping noise in the air as it passes. The low caliber allows the bullet to easily enter the body and cause internal bleeding. The bullet can enter a body from approximately 50 meters. Until now, over 20 people have been shot with the “0.22″ in Bi’lin, Ni’lin, and Budrus, including a Swedish ISM activist. Several from Bil’in and Ni’lin have this bullet lodged in their knees, one bullet went through a demonstrator’s leg and another demonstrator was shot in the stomach causing internal bleeding.

According to B’tselem,

In 2001, Maj.-Gen. Menachem Finkelstein, then judge advocate general, ordered that use of the Ruger rifle be stopped. The decision followed the killing of several children in the Gaza Strip by Ruger-rifle fire, and an order by OC Central Command to cease using the rifle, which was given after finding that soldiers often used it without justification against demonstrators. On 27 December 2001, Ha’aretz quoted a senior military official as saying that “the mistake was that the Ruger came to be seen as a means to disperse demonstrators, contrary to its original designation as a weapon like any other.”
On 10 January 2009, following the renewed use of the Ruger in demonstrations, Ha’aretz reported the comments of an “IDF official”, who said that the Ruger causes less harm, and is less lethal, than “rubber bullets.”

The Israeli army has also begun to use a more dangerous high velocity teargas projectile, labelled “40 mm bullet, special/long range” in Hebrew. The canister is black, heavy (130 grams without the propeller) and can reach more than 400 meters due to a propelling device. The gas-canister explodes only after it hits the ground. No tail of gas or audible cue makes this canister more likely to cause injuries, as demonstrators cannot anticipate when it is being used. Additionally, acceleration from the propeller and weight of this canister cause a greater impact when hitting a demonstrator. Use of this high velocity tear-gas projectile has caused the critical injury of American national, Tristan Anderson during a Ni’lin demonstration and the death of Basem Abu Rahme during a Bil’in demonstration.