February 2nd 2009
The Wounds of Gaza
2 March 09: We have taken down the blog post The wounds of Gaza because of factual inaccuracies. We would like to point out that our editorial decision process to post blog entries (and their comments) on The Lancet Global Health Network is very different from our rigorous peer review process in The Lancet and TheLancet.com. We want to encourage debate and we see The Lancet Global Health Network as a good forum to do this. We do not endorse any particular side of a debate and so post a range of views and comments.
February 2nd, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Since we wrote this account, we have spoken to senior Palestinian surgeons who described to us strange “penetrating wounds without shrapnels”. The wound track in such patients also has clean sharp margins. Some of them treated the wounds as clean wounds but after several days – mostly 3 days onwards there is necrosis of tissue around the wound track. In the case of skin, it can take the form of abscesses. In the abdomen there are extension of organ necrosis around the track such as liver necrosis, gangrenous bowel and kidney damage. We suspect these wounds are caused by Tungsten DIME explosives.
In experimental animals tungsten is highly carcinogenic, malignant tumours appearing around 5-7 months. However the long term carcinogenic effect on human is not known yet.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza is calling for any one who has shrapnel wounds which are unusual or does not heal to present themselves to any Health clinic.
February 2nd, 2009 at 8:15 pm
The lesson from these wounds without shrapnel is that Tungsten toxicity should always be suspected and primary wide excision of the wound track is mandatory to minimise tissue reaction to it. They must not be confused with what is traditionally thought to be clean cut wounds and merely washed out and closed.
Tissue biopsies are crucial if we are to understand more about these wounds. There is a pressing urgency given that there is a potential carcinogenic effect. DIME as an explosive is highly anti-personnel and can be used safely by an invading neighbouring army without the fear of the side effect of radioactive fallout which other radioactive warheads might carry. Its effect is localised to the target population only – in this case the people of Gaza, with no danger to its neighbour, cf nuclear weapons.
February 3rd, 2009 at 8:00 pm
Dear Drs Abu Sittah and Ang
Many thanks for your endeavours and courage at a particularly difficult time. It is shocking to hear details of the weapons that were used and alarming to hear the extent of the injuries upon the palestinian civilian population. I find it difficult to understand that those targetted were militants as described by the Israelis yet it seems that ambulances, schools, police stations have been hit targetting innocent civilians. Of course what is most distressing is the UNNECESSARY loss of human life in a world where there are enough natural disasters. Thank you for your good work. With all best wishes.
February 4th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Many people were dreading to read a report such as this, knowing full well what horrific actions has been carried out by Israel over the years.
The weapons used should come as no surprise, the UK has, along with the US have been the major source of such weapons. While they deny arms for the Palestinians they continue to supply the latest to Israel.
Thanks to Doctors for gathering the information whilst carrying out their humanitarin work for the people of Gaza and a special thanks to the Lancet for publishing their report.
Len Aldis
London
February 5th, 2009 at 1:50 am
Thanks for this invaluable report. I have no words appropriate to describe my horror and revulsion. It is almost unbelievable that the people of Israel, many of whom are descended from Jews who died in the Nazi holocaust, should have a government practising today’s holocaust. But I know that there is a significant minority of israeli citizens who oppose their government’s actions and I give thanks for these brave individuals who deserve our admiration and support. How could we best help them? Their government appears not to want their existence to be known. Why?
February 5th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
[...] in the event of another attack. Their statement was originally published in the magazine The Lancet Global Health Network .Under the title “The wounds of Gaza”, the two surgeons described [...]
February 6th, 2009 at 5:21 am
I think this statement detracts from the overall reliability of the report:
“Silent Bombs: People in Gaza described a silent bomb which is extremely destructive. The bomb arrives as a silent projectile at most with a whistling sound and creates a large area where all objects and living things are vaporized with minimal trace. We are unable to fit this into conventional weapons but the possibility of new particle weapons being tested should be suspected.”
February 6th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Your account is invaluable, despite making me cry. Thank you for your courage in bearing witness to these atrocities
February 6th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
I would like to thank you very much for your article which have many informations for us, journalistes,
publicits ans researchers.
faouzi elmir
February 6th, 2009 at 10:23 pm
Regarding Dr. Madelain Sharpe’s comment above, as the Israeli government doesn’t want the existence of Israeli opposition to their murderous activities, I will take the opportunity to publicise some here:
Israeli school ‘refuseniks’:
http://december18th.org/
International Jewish Solidarity Network:
http://www.ijsn.net/home/
Jewish Anti-Zionist initiatives:
http://www.globalwomenstrike.net/AntiZionism/LondonIJSNPhotos.htm (includes video)
And another thing the Israeli government doesn’t want people to know, is the truth about their attack on the USS Liberty in June 1967; read Peter Hounam’s ‘Operation Cyanide’.
Whilst this may appear as being off-subject, in fact it’s not; the Israeli govrnment gets away with these atrocities for one main reason: the US backs them to the hilt. Were the American public to learn the truth about the ‘Liberty’, there would be a massive wave of revulsion, which should seriously dent the US government’s ability to bankroll, arm and run interference for Israel.
February 7th, 2009 at 3:23 pm
Has anyone found the “thousands” of dead from Jenin yet?
The blatant palestinian lies put forth in this so called report are laughable.
I partucularly like the undocumented “report” of summary executions.
The only summary executions reported on by the media, both western and palestinian were those of Fatah members by Hamas.
February 7th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Sorry, this article is riddled with fallacies and outright lies. Take the first paragraph, for example.
“the execution of 35,000 prisoners of war by Israel in 1967″ – where is this from? this is a staggering historical invention. Have a browse on reliable, international sources on the net. Egyptian sources list 10,000 TOTAL war casualties in 1967. Not POWs, total Egyptian casualties… so what does the statement above mean? And how about the “civil disobedience” of the people of Gaza? Again, take a look around the net, to see that the people of Gaza have been busy with quite a bit more than civil disobedience. Say, suicide bombings?
And what of the “Khan Younis massacre of 5,000 in 1956″. Looked around on the net again for this one. I didn’t find anything on non-arab sources, and the arab sources list a massacre of 250 people, while one source, truthfully enough, acknowledges that the UN report on the subject says the people killed may have been combatants fighting the Israeli army. It was wartime at the time. So, again, we’re down from “Khan Younis massacre of 5,000 in 1956″ to 250 possible combatants. Israeli sources, by the way, which are much more reliable than Egyptian ones (Gaza was part of Egypt at the time, it hasn’t been independent for the past 500 or so years), say there was strong fighting in Khan Younis, hence the casualties.
And this is all in the first paragraph. Makes you wonder if the content on the rest of the article is as reliable as this. Here’s a hint – it’s as false.
It’s also an interesting editorial decision for an article dealing with the recent Gaza war, and starting as early as 1967, not to mention why the recent fighting broke out. In fact, the words ‘Hamas’ and ‘rocket’ are not mentioned once in this article. It seems the Israeli army just marched in there for no reason, right?
In short, besides being extremely biased, this article does not meet minimal standards of journalism, and is full of easily detectable lies. Simple as that. Just as UNRWA now backtracks on the claim that the IDF strike hit the infamous Gaza school (http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2008/s2484349.htm), just as the mosques bombed were arms depots (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCVr7MBhgj0), the truth about Gaza is emerging, and this Lancet article has nothing to do with it.
February 8th, 2009 at 12:58 am
Clearly the people of Gaza are very vulnerable to the use of such weapons of mass destruction. This means that protection of the Gaza population is the responsibility of the occupying power under international law in this case Israel, although they were not physically present on the stretch of land which is known Gaza strip, they did control sea, air and access to Gaza by land. The border were totally sealed off, which meant the population were not able to move or escape the brutality of this unequal war. The protection of Gaza people is the responsibility now of the international community and should be placed under International protection. In my opinion what is described in this article amounts to genocide of new scale and form. Yes, it might not be similar to the Rwanda genocide but it is very clear it is worse as the after effects of the use of such weapons equal to slow death due to the exposure in densly populated areas and residual effect on the land, water, air and human beings which have been exposed to such chemicals. They will die later from cancer or wounds sustained and god knows what other genetic disorders this might bring in later generation. What damage that might bring to the fragile ecosystem.
I would like to raise that the damage to the mental health of the people of Gaza is another aspect that was not mentioned in this article, but is already evident.
The lack of public health measures for the duration of this war, will bring major challenges later and the lack of regular access to health services impacts the outcomes to chronically ill population in Gaza. Lack of access to reproductive health services have increased the number of women and neonates who died or disabled during the war. There is a big need to start measuring the impact of this war for future accountability of occupying powers and to bring justice for the people of Gaza sooner or later, but it needs to happen. We all have responsibility to expose Israel and the powers behind them who are working on producing such weopens.
February 8th, 2009 at 9:58 pm
Words seem so inadequate and banal but one must say one is ashamed that one belongs to the human race when reading of such horrors. Have Israelis learned nothing? Perhaps in all charity they are not being told what their bombers are using and doing. Surely people cannot be silent when they know what their country is doing. One can only pray for the people of Gaza who have been betrayed by the whole World and what of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, etc., etc. It is merciless, cruel and bestial what is being done to those poor souls of Gaza.
February 8th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
I am a health professional dedicated to bringing an end to Israeli impunity. I am concerned by the figure you quote at the beginning of the article: 35,000 prisoners of war executed by Israel in 1967. This is way out of bounds of everything else published on fatalities at that time. Unless you can substantiate this information, this threatens to call into question the objectivity of the entire article and is then easily used by the defenders of Israel who so aggressively promote their own disinformation.
I recommend that you verify or correct this information as soon as possible.
Sincerely,
Judith Deutsch
February 10th, 2009 at 6:26 pm
Of course this is a horrendous report, and I pray that it be sent to and read by our new and hopefully more sane and just President Obama, and his State Department, and be inspired to condemn Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza in whatever terms he can, but forcefully.
Meanwhile, I have a poem written during Israel’s invasion of Southern Lebanon from my book, In the Realm of Neither:
GREAT CRUELTY AND HEARTLESSNESS
We’re living in a time of great cruelty and heartlessness
where instead of a sun they’re throwing up
anvils
Instead of sunlight there’s the sound of
hammers beating
Instead of walking there’s kicking
Instead of thinking there’s talking
It’s almost as if there’ve never been times like
these before
Even shadows thrown by cartwheels on dirt roads
resemble the grimaces of armies as they
slide across rocks
In the palaces of power clocks go off but no one
wakes
Decisions are made by pouring acid down drains
or waiting for nightfall in a room lit by
neon tubes
If anyone speaks all eyes are upon them
I saw a sparrow fly over a fence
An ant stop and not go on
But laughter has turned to pebbles
falling on zinc
And children have been torn from their futures
February 11th, 2009 at 12:55 am
Gentlemen,
I appreciate this summary very much. For my own edification, will you please send me some reference for your claim that Israel executed 35.000 POW’s in 1967? Thank you so much.
Peace,
Ken Freeland
Houston, TX, USA
February 11th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
I wonder if the authors could specify the source of this claim:
“Over the period of 27 December 2008 to the ceasefire of 18 Jan 2009, it was estimated that a million and a half tons of explosives were dropped on Gaza Strip.”
and whether “dropped” refers to “from aircraft” only or includes by way of artillery.
Thanks,
Robin
February 12th, 2009 at 3:51 am
This letter contains obvious distortions and exaggarations:
> “The wounds of Gaza are deep and multi-layered. Are we talking about the
Khan Younis massacre of 5,000 in 1956 or the execution of 35,000 prisoners
of war by Israel in 1967?”
These numbers are outlandish. The total number of people killed in Khan-Younis in 1956, under unclear circumstances, was 275 (see UN report at http://domino.un.org/unispal.nsf/0/6558f61d3db6bd4505256593006b06be?OpenDocument), and the number of POW Israel is accused by Egypt of killing in 1967 was 250 (see http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=93114&d=5&m=3&y=2007). Furthermore, the total number of Egyptians killed was only about 11,000 (see http://www.answers.com/topic/six-day-war).
> “Over the period of 27 December 2008 to the ceasefire of 18 Jan 2009, it
was estimated that a million and a half tons of explosives were dropped on
Gaza Strip.”
Another outlandish number. Using Gulf-war statistics, an average sortie of an F-16 results in less than 2 tons of explosives dropped (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/2868543.stm). Were there 750,000 sorties of fully-loaded F-16s in 3 weeks? Even adding artillery and tank shells, the number seems to be orders of magnitude too high. It implies that Israel had to “drop” over 1000 tons of explosives per person killed!
> “Gaza is 25 miles by 5 miles and home to 1.5 million people. This makes
it the most crowded area in the whole world.”
An easily refutable claim. Gaza has a population density of 4,000/km2. Hong
Kong and Singapore each has over 6,000/km2. Regions of similar size in large cities, such as Tokyo, are far denser.
…
I accept that there’s at least some factual basis to most of what they write about. However, the most shocking parts of the letter (eg, direct phosphorous shelling of homes, systematic executions of families) are obviously hearsay, given that the authors were not present in Gaza during these events. The obviousness of the errors in the openning paragraph indicates to me that the authors believe too easily in anything they are being told, casting doubt on any account that is not a direct observation .
Doron Dekel, Toronto
February 12th, 2009 at 10:05 am
Thank you for this horrifying report. Among so many urgent and immediate humanitarian necessitites, the collection of evidence of use of unconventional and banned weaponry to discriminately target civilian population and infrastructure is of great importance. The case for trial for warcrimes and genocidal activity by the IDF and the political leaders who issued the orders is now so far beyond compelling that any avoidance or undue delay of such a trial by the international community could only imply a deep and cynical complicity in these atrocities.
The people who commit these monstrous acts, or who order or encourage others to do so, must be made to pay for their crimes within the very framework of international law that they have denied the people of Gaza. And, yes, I agree absolutely that there must be an international defence force for the Occupied Territories of Palestine to protect the people there from further terror and murder.
Well done once again to the Lancet for publishing this report.
February 12th, 2009 at 3:56 pm
After reading the recent articles, I think this site is quickly becoming “Global Political Propaganda Network” instead of Global Health Network.
February 13th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Doctors who believe in “Silent Bombs”?
February 13th, 2009 at 11:34 am
The number of Egyptian POWs executed by the Israeli army in 1967, i.e. 35,000 according to the authors seems to be highly exagerated. Despite Israel’s official denials, there is compelling evidence that the Israeli army murdered hundreds of Egyptian soldiers who had surrendered, and wee unarmed. Hundreds, but certainly not 35,000. Also, the authors write about 1.5 million tons dropped on the Gaza strip within less than a month. I guess the authors wanted to say 1,500 tons, which is already an enormous quantity for such a small packed area. These might be details, but as a proverb says, we should not forget that a spoonfull of tar can spoil a barrel of honey.
Nicolas Shahshahani, Paris, France
February 13th, 2009 at 6:34 pm
For two British surgeons, Drs Ghassan Abu Sittah and Ang Swee are remarkably well informed on what happened in Gaza during the war between Hamas with Israel. Could it be that the PR department of Hamas provided a teeny bit of help with the copy, much of which is patently fabricated,for their contribution.
Their exercise in military analysis strangely makes no mention of the fact that Hamas have been waging war against Israel with rockets aimed at civilian populations for 8 years long before any “seige” and long after any “occupation” . Hamas have used dense population centres, not the leafy up-market residential areas of Gaza, for their rocket launchings, and mosques, schools and hospitals for storing armaments and combatants. The 6000 or so rockets fired at Israel and the employment of civilians as human shields both constitute war crimes.
The IDF is unique in the attempts it makes to limit civilian death and injury ( See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WssrKJ3Iqcw for an independent British military opinion)
The death and devastation in Gaza is a tragedy but Hamas has martyred its own people (and not just its Fatah opponents) in its genocidal hatred against Israel. They and their Iranian sponsors bear the responsibility for the suffering of the Gazans.
February 14th, 2009 at 10:27 am
Thank you very much for this detalailed account of the situation on the ground in Gaza. It is deeply saddening to see the palestinians whose lifes are considered worthless in the eyes of the Israeli government have been used to try out a series of devastating weapons. It is very easy to forget the ongoing suffering of the palestianians after the story comes off the media, thank you very much for reminding us that they must not be forgotten.
February 15th, 2009 at 2:29 am
First of all, thank you doctors Sittah and Ang for their courageous and valiant efforts on behalf of the suffering people of Gaza, and for sharing their experiences with the world via this blog.
I am writing, actually, to bring to your attention what I believe to be a serious factual error. In the beginning of this article, there is a reference to an alleged massacre by Israel of 35,000 Arab POW’s during the ‘67 war. Someone on our group’s listserve brought this to my attention as not sounding right. A brief search on the internet showed that there were allegations that the IDF murdered enemy soldiers, particularly Egyptian soldiers, rather than take them prisoner. While I could not find a total number on this, it appears that it was nowhere near 35,000 and even 3500 would be an excessively high number. I refer you to the following article on the subject:
http://www.wrmea.com/backissues/0296/9602017.html
Thank you for your immediate attention to this matter.
February 15th, 2009 at 6:09 am
I’m an investigative journalist with 40 years of radio and TV work as experience and have rarely in contemporary times seen or heard of so much horror as has been done to the Palestinian people by the Israeli government. The words I hear like genocide and war crimes seem to not have been overstated. How are we to stop this horror?
February 15th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Thank you so much for making this report available.
February 16th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Sure our “indispensable ally” would not commit barbaric crimes on a civilian population? With an “ally” like this, won’t have any friends.