2500 Martyrs: Victims of Israeli Mines
2500 Martyrs: Victims of Israeli Mines:
Israeli crimes and massacres were not only confined in that long series of crimes and massacres referred to throughout the previous pages, but has been expanded to the Israeli military mines deliberately planted by the occupation forces in the fields and orchards and the Palestinian territories, which resulted in the occurrence of bloody massacres, most of the victims being Palestinian children.
Al-Quds newspaper published the following report regarding Israeli massacres and mine victims which are considered real war crimes[i]:
“The coordinator of the Palestinian campaign to ban land mines accused the Israeli army of planting mines in more than one location in the West Bank and Gaza in order to kill and injure citizens, confirming the deaths and injuries of more than 2,500 Palestinian civilians since 1967, 34% of whom were children.
Ayed Abu Qutaish said that Israel is using mines and suspicious objects against Palestinian citizens, especially since the start of Al-Aqsa Intifada in spite of its claims to the contrary.
Children are the first victims
The coordinator of the Palestinian Campaign explained that most of the victims from the remnants of the Israeli army and their military trainings and confrontations are children.
He stressed that the death of the child Yahya Sheikh El Eid from Rafah, who was less than 12-years-old, as well as other hundreds of children died facing the internationally forbidden arsenal of Israeli forces and other allowed arsenal. Israel tries to justify in international forums the absence of its signature of the Ottawa agreement to ban mines by the fact that it is located in the middle of hostile states.
According to a study by the Global Movement for Children in Palestine before the Intifada:
– 21.5% of the mine explosions have led to fatalities,
– 19.8% of these accidents led to both fatalities and injuries,
– While 8.7% of them led to injuries”:
- 41% were injured in their bodies
- 5% were injured by shrapnel in their bodies
- 5% of the victims had a body part amputated
- 4% were victims of deformities and burnings
Abu Qutaish argued Israel’s insistence on pursuing this internationally prohibited policy of planting mines in dirt mounts that are tearing apart Palestinian governorates;in addition to planting mines at the entrance of one residential building on the pretext that Palestinian militants fire from them, and the injuring of the child Haniyeh Anumeila from the Bureij camp, who lost her legs and the children Jassim Abu Madin and Hani Shaheen.
The campaign coordinator said through the Israeli controller’s report for the year 1999:
– Putting minefields in areas under Israeli military control is a disgrace to Israeli democracy
– The detection discovered the presence of 37 minefields despite the fact that the Israelis admitted the existence of only 16 minefields within the mutual understanding map which the two sides acknowledged
– The absence of any security justification for keeping this minefield except, regarding the types of mines used by Israel, Abu Qutaish pointed to two types:
– A dangerous type known as “jumping mines” designed for murder,
upon touching, the mine jumps to the distance of a meter and explodes in the chest or the head. The impact of the blast depends on the amount of explosive material it contains.
– Shrapnel mines eject 200 to 300 shrapnels, twice as fast as the bullet as it reaches a distance of 150 to 200 meters.
As for the gravity caused by messing with mines and unexploded bodies, the result might be the amputation of a leg or both legs or an injury in the eyes or face, the consequent psychological and physical effects, and the need for painful and slow rehabilitative efforts.”
Abu Qutaish mentioned that Israeli forces had previously announced that they cleaned lands from mines located in a field in the village of Nabi Elias in the West Bank. After the entry of people to this field, believing that it was free from mines, a child died as the cleaning process was not in accordance with international standards.
Thus, we stand at the end of this semester in the face of the crimes of the occupation in the occupied Palestinian territories during the period,1967 to the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000. A scene full of crimes and Zionist bloody massacres which lasted over the years of the occupation without any interruption, surpassing all conventions, international laws and red lines.
[i]. Al-Quds newspaper 22/7/2001.