Doctors in Gaza are reporting what they say are unexplained injuries among the dead and wounded in operations by the Israeli military, which have killed more than 200 Palestinians in the past nine weeks.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is considering whether there is a case for an investigation into the injuries amid suspicions by the medics that the injuries were inflicted by what they claim may have been unidentified "non-conventional" weapons.
Beside especially severe burning "down to the bones", the doctors say that, in other cases, internal organs have been ruptured without any obvious sign of shrapnel wounds.
While a report from the Hamas-run Ministry of Health said the injuries raised the possibility Israel could be using "unprecedented" projectiles with "radiant" substances, the medics acknowledge that there is no proof so far of their claims. They also admit that the difficulty of establishing the exact cause of death is greatly exacerbated by the reluctance of most bereaved Palestinian families to allow autopsies.
Dr Juma al Saqqa, the director of public relations at Shifa Hospital, said the type of injuries presented by some victims were "very strange" and added: "We think this should be studied. In some cases we have opened the abdomen and found very fragmented organs." He said this was despite X-rays showing no shrapnel lodged in the patients' bodies. He said one, unsubstantiated suggestion by sympathetic doctors consulted in Italy was that some injuries might have been caused by phosphorus.
There had been reports that during the Israeli war against Lebanon white phosphorus had been used but those claims were either vastly underreported or balanced by news about Hezbollah's weaponry. The effects of the likely use of white phosphorus during that conflict was filmed by CNN when it covered the heartbreaking story of two young children who had suffered massive burns. One of the doctors involved in treating the children said the stench of their skin convinced him that Israel had used white phosphorus in its attacks on Lebanon.
Although the report in Monday's Independent is treated as news, Dr al Saqqa, who was interviewed for the piece raised these concerns almost two months ago in Gulf News. (caution: photos of injuries) That article decsribes two possible sources for these types of injuries: Hellfire missiles or:
One of several 'sensor fused' submunitions carried within a missile (formerly CBU-97) will project near molten copper at its target. The velocity is such that when the mass fragments, these will pass clean through the human body - obviously depending on distance travelled. The heat in them would certainly explain the widespread and deep tissue death. A version was used to 'great effect' in ''Operation Iraqi Freedom''. It should be straightforward to confirm the use of this weapon given the identity of the metal.
Further testing and an investigation ought to be able to determine exactly what caused these horrendous injuries and whether Israel has violated international law.
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