PA calls for DIME bombs to be tried as war crime
Meagan Freeman | 18.02.2009 14:15 | Palestine | Technology | World
After several doctor's reports of unusual wounds and over 500 amputations in the recent war in Gaza, the Palestinian Authority has accused Israel of using and testing new, horrific weapons, including DIME bombs, and has urged the International Criminal Court in The Hague to try Israel for the use of these weapons as war crimes.
An online news source called 'Russia Today' yesterday reported accusations of the use of DIME (Dense Inert Weapons Explosive) bombs in Gaza, and the eyewitness accounts of doctors who had treated those wounded by these weapons.
The DIME bomb has reportedly been dropped by Israel from drone aircraft. Upon land, rather than detonating like a shell and causing injury by shrapnel, the DIME bomb releases a huge 'pressure wave', which is said to take off skin, flesh and limbs. Its use was first described in Lebanon in 2006.
In the case of one young woman, doctors reported that her leg looked like it had been 'cut off by a knife', and half her body paralysed, most probably by a DIME bomb.
Dr Eric Fosse, a Norweigan doctor who was one of the few internationals in Gaza during the recent war, also warned of the long term dangers of this weapon, saying, “We believe that it is a kind of tungsten alloy that constitutes this weapon. There have been studies in the US with this alloy and it apparently causes cancer after a while".
Israel is accused of war crimes in conjunction with the use of these weapons, as well as of using Gaza as a 'testing ground' for new arms.
General Shaul Givoli, former military governor of Nablus, insisted, “We know of many instances when Palestinians set up killings in order to later accuse us of their crimes. Propaganda is also a type of weapon. We’ve know it since the times of Goebbels. Palestinians are just trying to turn the world’s public opinion against us,” as though Gaza has enough weapons to defend itself, let alone kill its own people in new and torturous ways.
The DIME bomb has reportedly been dropped by Israel from drone aircraft. Upon land, rather than detonating like a shell and causing injury by shrapnel, the DIME bomb releases a huge 'pressure wave', which is said to take off skin, flesh and limbs. Its use was first described in Lebanon in 2006.
In the case of one young woman, doctors reported that her leg looked like it had been 'cut off by a knife', and half her body paralysed, most probably by a DIME bomb.
Dr Eric Fosse, a Norweigan doctor who was one of the few internationals in Gaza during the recent war, also warned of the long term dangers of this weapon, saying, “We believe that it is a kind of tungsten alloy that constitutes this weapon. There have been studies in the US with this alloy and it apparently causes cancer after a while".
Israel is accused of war crimes in conjunction with the use of these weapons, as well as of using Gaza as a 'testing ground' for new arms.
General Shaul Givoli, former military governor of Nablus, insisted, “We know of many instances when Palestinians set up killings in order to later accuse us of their crimes. Propaganda is also a type of weapon. We’ve know it since the times of Goebbels. Palestinians are just trying to turn the world’s public opinion against us,” as though Gaza has enough weapons to defend itself, let alone kill its own people in new and torturous ways.
Meagan Freeman
