Guardian: Israel accused after Palestinian boys burned by mystery canister

3 June 2011 | The Guardian

Military experts say unidentified devices found in West Bank may have contained outlawed white phosphorus.

The Israeli army has been accused of leaving dangerous munitions near Palestinian homes after two boys were seriously burnt when they picked up a mysterious silver canister which exuded toxic white fumes.

A second canister, discovered nearby less than a week later, was destroyed by the army in a controlled explosion

The army does not deny leaving the devices, but would not identify them and suggested they were left over after training exercises. But the area where they were found does not feature on an army map of designated training areas and the canisters appeared new and unweathered.

Eid Da’ajani, 15, found the canister on 20 February, around 100 metres from his home in the village of Buweib, south of Hebron. The device, around 20cm (7.9 ins) long and 5cm in diameter, was lying in a scrubland where the boys were watching the family’s goats.

Eid showed it to his cousin, Mohammed, also 15, who said that it might be a bomb, but Eid picked at the tube’s foil-like covering, causing it to emit dense white fumes. The boys ran away but the gas clung to them and burnt their clothes, melting their shoes and burning their skin.

“The moment the smoke came. I dropped it, but the smoke followed us. When we escaped that’s when the pain started, ” said Eid.

Military experts consulted by the Guardian said the effect of the smoke was similar to that caused by white phosphorous but could not speculate on the nature of the devices from photographs alone.

One suggested that it could be chaff – projectiles fired from an aircraft to decoy enemy missiles – which had not ignited.

The use of white phosphorous in civilian areas is banned by the Geneva conventions yet it is often used by armies for marking and creating smoke screens. Israel used white phosphorous in civilian areas during the Gaza war in 2008-2009 but stopped after international criticism.

Khalid Da’ajani, the boys’ grandfather said that 10 people in the area had been killed by discarded army bombs. “We knew it was the army [which left the cannister] but we had never seen anything like this. The burns seemed to spread along their bodies and all we could do was pour water on them which didn’t seem to help,” he said.

Both boys were taken to the local hospital in Yatta, but when contacted by Eid’s father the Israeli army showed little interest until told that there had been an explosion. Soldiers then questioned the boys and doctors eventually gave them an intravenous transfusion which eased their pain. The family’s request to receive treatment in an Israeli hospital was denied, but two days later, the boys were taken to hospital in Hebron where a team of visiting Italian doctors spent three hours cleaning their wounds.

The hospital report states that boys suffered first to second degree burns to their faces, hands, ankles and legs due to “the explosion of a foreign body”. They were then referred to a burns unit in Nablus, around 60 miles from their home, rather than to an Israeli hospital less than half the distance away.

But last week, Lo’ai, Mohammed’s younger brother discovered an identical canister not far from where the first was found.

He ran away and his family contacted the army. After inspecting the device, troops piled rocks and explosives around it before blowing it up.

In a statement, a spokesman for the Israeli army said: “The area under discussion served in the past as a training field and is no longer in use. The young men were treated on site by a military medical team. Because their injuries were light, they did not require evacuation to an Israeli hospital, and they were evacuated by the Red Crescent.”

Almost two weeks after the event the boys have stopped vomiting and suffering from headaches. Large parts of their skin remain bleached white and blistered. Both seem to be recovering but still find it hard to walk.

A spokesman for Physicians for Human Rights and Israeli non-governmental organisation said that the incident represented a violation of the Palestinians’ right to the health by the Israeli army.

“Leaving bombs unattended on the lands of Palestinians where children and others spend most of their time is a violation of human rights. Worse, is the fact that the army denied these children a better treatment in Israeli hospitals despite the fact that they admitted it was a bomb they had left in the field,” the spokesman said.

Physicians for Human Rights have said that they have written to ask the army for answers about the incident and will take legal action with the family if the army does not explain how two of these dangerous devices appeared in village lands that are regularly frequented by children, adults and animals.

CPT: Settlers Injure Palestinian with Stones

2 June 2011 | Christian Peacemaker Teams

For Immediate Release

In the old city in Hebron, two boys, ages 14 and 15, residents of Beit Hadassah Settlement, threw multiple stones, some as large as 5 inches, at Palestinians walking past in the market place. One nine year old boy was struck with two stones causing a head injury that splattered the sidewalk and storefront with blood. An ambulance arrived to rush the boy to the hospital for emergency care.

An IDF soldier stationed beside the settlement had neither tried to stop the boys nor take any action against the two teens who had hurled these stones at the people shopping below. An Israeli Policeman later called on a resident who saw much of the incident and took information to investigate further into this tragedy.

This same resident’s house is back to back with the Beit Hadassah settlement. Besides enduring daily harassment from settlers, he needs to board his windows to protect his family from the violence of the settlers. Lately, he reported several incidents, including settlers from Beit Hadassah smashing his car windows and throwing eggs at his store.

Random arrests and assaults during and after Nakba day in Hebron

29 May 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

Head injury after assault by Israeli soldiers
Several teenage boys were arrested after the 15 May Nakba Day demonstration in Hebron. On May 24 the International Solidarity Movement met one 16 year old boy and his father to hear his story.

The boy had been on his way home from work at around 6 pm on May 15 when he was stopped by Israeli soldiers near the old city of Hebron. Suddenly and without reason, two soldiers jumped on him and without saying anything started to beat him in his head and chest with the stocks of their guns. The boy was then dragged into a military jeep where there were other arrested Palestinian boys and was handcuffed and blindfolded. The soldiers kept on beating the boys as they drove them to the police station. The boy ISM met was bleeding heavily from a cut in his head, for which he did not receive medical care until the day after the arrest. The boy required three stitches for his wound.

In the police station, the boy saw 15 other young boys who had been arrested the same day. After nine hours of arrest, the boy was told that he was accused of throwing stones at Israeli soldiers. Throughout his arrest and detention, the soldiers and police humiliated the boy, calling him a donkey and making him stand for hours facing a wall. They also asked him continuously which Palestinian party he was part of.

That night the boy was taken to a different jail which is used for longer detentions, where he was kept for four days. He was eventually released from prison after being made to sign a paper in Hebrew which he didn’t understand. He later discovered that the paper said that if he gets arrested again he has to pay 2000 shekels.

At the time of writing, several boys who were arrested on Nakba day were still being held without charge. ISM does not have any information about the number of arrested boys.

Apartheid expanding in Hebron

24 May 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

During Sunday 22nd May several streets were closed in the H1 area of Hebron for illegal settlers to walk through the city followed by approximately 50 soldiers. Meanwhile the shops in the Palestinian area were closed and Palestinians were prohibited from walking through the streets and entering through checkpoint 56.

Hebron is divided into two areas, H1 and H2. H1 is under the rule of the Palestinian Authority and the illegal settlers are usually prohibited from entering it, while the H2 area which includes illegal settlements is under the Israeli military’s control. In contrary to these rules, the illegal settlers were allowed to walk the streets of H1 area on Sunday whilst the Palestinians were put under curfew.

On Saturdays, illegal settlers are normally allowed to take a tour in the old city of Hebron followed and guarded by the Israeli military. A few hours after the settler tour on Saturday May 21st the main street of the old city was attacked by the Israeli military with two sound bombs. One man was injured in his head after being hit by the sound bomb. He and a woman, who became temporally deaf, needed hospital care for their injuries.

Fire at field near Kiryat Arba, Hebron

22 May 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

Israeli settlers suspected of starting a fire on Palestinian land near Hebron.
Israeli settlers suspected of starting a fire on Palestinian land near Hebron.

On Thursday May 19 a part of the field of Abd al Kareim al Jabari in Western Hebron, where International Solidarity Movement activists have been present for the past ten days, was set on fire.

Settler children started to throw stones at the ISM activists as soon as they arrived at the farm on Thursday. At 3:40 PM, when the activists were helping the farmer on the land, smoke appeared from another part of the field which is just below a kindergarten in the illegal settlement of Givat Ha’avot. After approximately ten minutes the fire brigade of Kiryat Arba came and started to extinguish the fire, while children from the settlement sang songs and chanted “Death to the Arabs”.

The Israeli military, boarder police and police arrived and straight away requested proof of identity from the ISM activists, a B’tselem activist and one of the daughters of the family. Abd al Kareim al Jabari was told that a man from the illegal settlement claimed that he had seen the ISM activists setting fire to the field! This accuse was apparently confirmed by a settler guard from Kiryat Arba. After checking the identity of the activists and keeping their passports and ID cards for half-an-hour, the military and police drove away.

Israeli settler children overlook area of burned Palestinian land.
Israeli settler children overlook area of burned Palestinian land.

As ISM has reported earlier, the Jabari land is very exposed to settler violence as it lies between the illegal settlements of Kiryat Arba and Givat Ha’avot in Western Hebron.