| http://www.dawn.com/2001/06/14/int8.htm
Israeli army using controversial weapon GAZA, June 13: The Israeli army on Wednesday described as a mistake its killing of three women at a Bedouin camp in the Gaza Strip, and a military source said the soldiers involved could be court-martialled. The women were killed on the weekend by tank shells that sprayed deadly razor-sharp darts known as flechettes, a controversial weapon in Israel's arsenal that it used in its war in south Lebanon against Hezbollah. A defence specialist said on Wednesday the weapons were not meant for use in civilian areas because they were not accurate. "In the case of the Bedouin women there was a mistake. There was a sighting of suspicious figures, the soldier fired toward them and instead hit the Bedouin women," an army spokesman said. He said the Israeli army chief of staff was conducting an inquiry. An Israeli military source added: "They are considering a court martial. There was a mistake and reprimands are expected." The army spokesman, describing the incident, said the army had spotted two armed Palestinians. He did not say if the pair had been shooting. An earlier army statement said soldiers had come under fire from three different locations. Hospital X-rays seen on Wednesday showed flechettes embedded in the spines or necks of Selmiya al-Malalha, teenager Hekmat al-Malalha and Nasra al-Malalha, who died on Saturday night. Gaza City's Shifa hospital director-general for admissions, Muawiya Hassanein, said at least six Palestinians had been killed by flechettes since the start of the Palestinian uprising in late September. A correspondent has seen five of the bodies killed by flechettes or their X-rays. BEDOUIN ENCAMPMENT: The Palestinian Authority called the killings an "ugly crime". A correspondent who visited the Bedouin camp just south of Gaza City on Tuesday saw dozens of flechette holes punched through the scrap metal or plastic sacks the women had used as shelter. The nail-like projectiles were everywhere - sticking out of sand dunes, stuck in plastic water jugs and among the jagged fragments from the 120mms tank shell. For the husband of 17-year-old Hekmat, the talk of an Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire could not ease the pain of losing a young wife. Salam al-Malalha had been waiting for her in their tent as she chatted outside with relatives. "I carried her after she was hit. The weight of her body was unusual. It was clear she was dead," Salam said, sitting on the sand floor of the tent they shared. Hekmat's dusty handbag hangs from a branch inside the tent. She had turned a rusty old bucket upside down on the sand floor of her tent, in a pitiful attempt at a vanity table. There were bottles of nail polish, and a flechette next to her hairbrush. Camels and goats grazed in pens outside. "I was first attracted to her kindness. But then this grew into love," said Salam, looking at their wedding photographs. FLECHETTES: Flechettes are about the size of an average nail with small fins at one end to stabilize them in flight. They can be packed inside tank shells or in "ambush busters" fired from an M-16 assault rifle. They penetrate deep into the body. Paul Beaver, a spokesman for Jane's Defence, said there were varying interpretations about the use of the ammunition and prohibitions under the Geneva Conventions. The ammunition was technically not illegal in the case of a "war of national survival", Beaver said. He said the ammunition's illegality was dependent on the context. It was not designed to be used in populated areas like the Bedouin camp, because when a tank shell exploded it sprayed flechettes in a radius of about 270 degrees around the impact point. In areas in which there were civilians, the firing of flechette rounds was "an indiscriminate use of the weapon". Instead, troops should fire aimed shots, Beaver said.-Reuters |
