[News] Gaza children shelled with flechette bombs

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Gaza children shelled with flechette bombs

Adie Mormech writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Live from 
Palestine, 27 July 2010
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11423.shtml



"She came in through the front door and it wasn't clear she was 
injured. Suddenly a lot of blood came from her nose and she vomited, 
all of the family saw this -- her little brothers were very scared. 
She had just been playing in the front of the house."

That is how Nihed al-Massry describes what happened to her daughter, 
nine-year-old Samah Eid al-Massry, after the Israeli army reportedly 
shelled and fired four bombs into and around a residential area in 
Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip, on 21 July. Samah is now being 
hospitalized in serious condition, suffering from extensive blood 
loss and very low haemoglobin. She was hit by shrapnel and flechettes 
from a nail bomb that landed 100 meters away, causing internal 
bleeding to the chest and severe head trauma. Nails are now embedded 
throughout her body.

Shells containing flechettes are illegal under international law if 
fired into densely-populated civilian areas. Three other children 
were wounded in the attack.

Two young men were killed; Muhammad al-Kafarneh, 23, suffered severe 
shrapnel injuries to the back and chest and Kasim al-Shinbary, 19, 
was wounded by nails embedded in his skull and shrapnel his back. It 
was unclear earlier whether they were resistance fighters or if they 
were civilians.

Haitham Thaer Qasem, a four-year-old boy and an only child, was 
asleep on a hospital bed, occasionally gasping for breath through the 
apparatus around his nose. He had suffered deep nasal trauma, and 
flechette darts from the bomb were still embedded in his tiny body, 
through his back, right elbow and right leg. He was 200 meters from 
the impact of the bomb.

Haitham's mother was standing off to the side, quietly crying while 
one of his aunts at his bedside explained what happened.

"We had asked Haitham to get shopping for [his mother] from the 
market, then we heard the bombings and somebody came to our home and 
told our family that he was in the hospital and was injured in the 
bombing. We came quickly to the hospital."

Meanwhile, Samah's doctor explained that the girl's blood loss was a 
major concern. Her injuries are exacerbated by the fact that she, 
like three of her brothers, already suffers from the blood condition 
thalassemia and the drug to treat the condition, Exjade, is scarce 
because of the Israeli blockade. She was clearly in pain and 
confused, trying to remove the nasal tubes. Her mother showed us the 
bandages on her chest.

Her doctor, Muhammad Abu Hassan, described her situation as "semi-critical."

"She was in very bad condition when she arrived -- it's difficult for 
children and very traumatic to insert a chest tube for small children 
-- very painful. Blood was mainly coming from the chest. We will have 
to perform surgery and we will further explore her abdominal pain," 
he explained.

The al-Massry family has been affected by Israeli attacks before. 
Samah's four-year-old brother Ryad was injured during Israel's three 
weeks of attacks on the Gaza Strip during winter 2008-09 when more 
than 400 Palestinian children were killed.

"Our house was hit during the war, a neighbor was killed inside and 
our son suffered severe head injuries. He wasn't cared for and 
because of this his sight is now permanently damaged."

As we left Samah, she had begun to cry, moaning in serious discomfort 
and confusion. There were two more injured children in the hospital 
from the attack, also from the al-Massry family in Beit Hanoun: Azzam 
Muhammad al-Massry, 11, who suffered a severely fractured left elbow 
and Ibrahim Wasseem al-Massry, 4, with light injuries to his abdomen.

The previous week in Gaza, Nema Abu Said, a 33-year-old mother of 
five, was <http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11419.shtml>killed 
by Israeli shelling as she went outside frantically looking for her 
youngest son after a previous round of shelling. Three more family 
members were injured by the flechette shells, many of the darts 
remaining permanently embedded in their bodies.

Adie Mormech is a human rights advocate based in the Gaza Strip who 
was previously abducted by the Israeli navy from the eighth Free Gaza 
Movement boat, the Spirit of Humanity. He volunteers with the 
International Solidarity Movement.



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