2001 Israeli Nerve Gas Attacks

2001 Israel Nerve Gas Attacks. For 6 weeks in early 2001, Israel carried out a series of at least eight nerve gas attacks on Palestinian civilian populations in both Gaza and the West Bank. The symptoms reported match those of tabun, a known anticholinesterase poison belonging to a family of organophosphate nerve poisons.

User of Nerve Gas, Feb/March 2001

For 6 weeks in early 2001, Israel carried out a series of at least eight nerve gas attacks on Palestinian civilian populations, starting in Gaza (Khan Younis and Gharbi refugee camps) on the 12th February.. On March 2, the attacks moved to the West Bank, beginning with the town of Al-Bireh. No analysis of the Hebrew-labelled containers has been published, but "irreversible binding" of acetylcholinesterase is the most likely explanation for the recurrent and persistent symptoms experienced by the Palestinian victims. The hand-sized gas canisters lobbed produced a staged release of colored smoke and a strangely attractive fragrance without the immediately irritating effects of tear gas (of which many refugees, particularily in Khan Yhounis, were familiar). The first attacks occurred while the newly-elected Sharon government was still being formed and continued until the end of March, 2001. Khan Younis was under strict Israeli blockade at the time and a heavy barrage of conventional weaponry (two or more hours) typically preceded the launch of the gas attacks. This did not completely scare off witnesses, including newspeople - though it drove people inside where closed windows and doors appear to have offered little protection. Of the known nerve gases, tabun is the most likely candidate - even if not, it was likely a potent anticholinesterase poison belonging to this family of organophosphate nerve poisons. Eyewitness testimony and news reports indicate that this gas was deliberately released into the homes, schoolyards, and streets of occupied Palestine, where the presence of civilian men, women, and children was a certainty. A film called "Gaza Strip" included the nerve gas allegations and claimed that "nearly 200 Palestinians" had been left hospitalized in Khan Younis alone. The film-maker discussed the content of his film and answered objections in Sept 2002 and gave an interview about it in 2003.

"The people we saw in the hospital, were mainly young people, exhibiting neurological manifestations: with hypertonic and choreoathetotic crisis in their limbs, spasms causing the body to stiffen, or worse: to go rigid in an arc position. This was followed by episodes of muscle relaxation: Nearly complete paralysis of the limbs, with hypertonia and also digestive pains like cramps and colics, and behavioral distresses; periods of extreme excitation, that kind of trouble." - Dr. Helen Bruzau - Medecins Sans Frontieres

On the West Bank, Jonathan Cook reported a sudden change in the symptoms from gas attacks in March 2001 and quoted a doctor in Hussein Hospital "reported a rapid increase in untreatable patients since the first such case was admitted in late February". The hospital's director said: "Until a few weeks ago it was simple to help tear gas victims. We gave them oxygen for 10 minutes and then discharged them. Now they arrive having fits, dizzy, sometimes unconscious, having severe problems breathing. Something has definitely changed." The Israeli Defence Force said it used only standard CS gas, claiming the victims' complaints were caused by "anxiety." A paediatrician who has worked in the West Bank for 15 years, treating dozens of victims of gas inhalation had never seen such symptoms before. "Sliman's condition was certainly not one of anxiety. ... his symptoms were compatible with exposure to a strong poison. This suggests to me that the gas being used by Israel is no longer safe."

Background

Confirmation that the Israel Institute for Biological Research near Tel Aviv was receiving the components of nerve gas weapons came after El Al Flight LY 1862 crashed just outside Amsterdam on October 4, 1992. In April 1998 again Israel denied there had been dangerous chemicals on board, but in Oct 1998 it was revealed that the plane was carrying 10 tons of chemicals used in the most dangerous of the known nerve gases, Sarin. The shipment from Solkatronic Chemicals of Morrisville, Pennsylvania to IIBR was under US Department of Commerce licence, contrary to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) to which the US, but not Israel, is party.

This facility has been involved in "an extensive effort to identify practical methods of synthesis for nerve gases (such as tabun, sarin, and VX) and other organophosphorus and fluorine compounds." In a 4 October 1998 interview with The London Sunday Times, a former IIBR biologist said "There is hardly a single known or unknown form of chemical or biological weapon ... which is not manufactured at the institute."

Another film-maker, James Miller died in a shooting at Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on May 2, 2003. In a subsequent disciplinary hearing, the officer who'd fired, a first lieutenant in the Bedouin Desert Reconnaissance Battalion, was acquitted of charges that he had violated open-fire regulations. The IDF said that Brig. Gen. Guy Tzur decided the shooting was "reasonable" in light of prevailing conditions, including "frequent terrorist attacks, thick darkness and earlier that same day the soldiers were fired at by anti-tank missiles".

International agreements

Israel signed but has not ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention. Israel recognises the Fourth Geneva Convention, but not its applicability to the Occupied Palestinian Territory of the West Bank (and formerly Gaza). Article 147 of the Geneva Convention stipulates that to "willingly cause [civilians] great suffering or serious injury to body or health" is a "grave breach", which, according to Article 146, requires all High Contracting Parties to "search for persons alleged to have committed or to have ordered to commit such grave breaches" and must "bring such person regardless of their nationality before their own courts".

1999 claim of "Poison Gas"

In Nov 1999, Yassir Arafat's wife Suha Arafat claimed (in Arabic): "Our people have been subjected to the daily and extensive use of poisonous gas by the Israeli forces, which has led to an increase in cancer cases among women and children." No evidence for this claim was ever presented, though it could refer to tear-gas released in confined places.

1988 Toxic gas withdrawn

In 1988 the Jerusalem and Chicago based DataBase Project on Palestinian Human Rights (precursor to The Palestine Human Rights Information Center) claimed that, in the first five months of the First Intifada, at least 50 Palestinians died from exposure to U.S.-made tear gas, and more than 150 pregnant women suffered miscarriages or fetal deaths. On 6th May 1988 US manufacturer stopped shipments of rubber ball grenades, 9.8 pounds in weight, that give off CS fumes as they bounce and roll along the ground. The supply suspension was linked to a UN official charging that Israeli tear gas was responsible for Palestinian miscarriages and deaths, a charge denied by Israel.

References

• Interview with James Longley conducted by Jane Adas about the making of Gaza Strip in Framework, The Journal of Cinema and Media, Volume 43, No. 2 Fall 2002.
• Transcripts of selected interviews with witnesses during the week of February 12, 2001 in Khan Younis Refugee Camp. Recorded for the documentary film, "Gaza Strip".
• Map of the filming locations of "Gaza Strip".