The Gases of the Israel Bombs Have Spared No One - Vittorio Arigoni

Free Gaza blog, February 1, 2009 - ....Ahmed told me on the phone about a new kids' game - until a few days ago, they amused themselves by relighting the fires, simply by kicking the fragments of white phosphorous bombs found scattered all over the Strip. The debris left by these devices with high chemical potential has very long-lasting inflammable properties. Even when picked up several days after their detonation, it still catches fire if shaken about. The Al Quds hospital paramedics speak of how they gave up trying to put out the fires provoked by these illegal bombs - their flames seemed to feed off the water being thrown at them.

"The consequences of all the shit that's been thrown at us in these last three weeks will surface in the near future, with new cancer cases and deformed babies", Munir, a doctor at Al Shifa hospital told me. Even Gaza's neighbours seem to be worried by this massive use of weapons forbidden by all international conventions. In Sderot, and likewise in Ashkelon, Israeli citizens have formally asked their government for clarifications regarding the weapons that have been used to torment us. It's obvious that impoverished uranium and white phosphorous scattered in such a criminal manner all over the tiny patch of land that is Gaza won't discriminate between Jews and Muslims when it comes to provoking generic illnesses....

Vittorio Arrigoni is an Italian volunteer who has worked in Palestine with the International Solidarity Movement since 2003. He is presently in Gaza writing daily dispatches for the Italian press. His previous articles can be read on his blog.