Guardian: Mystery Canisters Burn Palestinian Boys
Local Editor
Military experts say unidentified devices found in West Bank may have contained outlawed white phosphorus.
The "Israeli" army has been accused of leaving dangerous munitions near Palestinian homes after two boys were seriously burnt when they picked up a mysterious silver canister which exuded toxic white fumes.
A second canister, discovered nearby less than a week later, was destroyed by the army in a controlled explosion.
The army does not deny leaving the devices, but would not identify them and suggested they were left over after training exercises. But the area where they were found does not feature on an army map of designated training areas and the canisters appeared new and unweathered, reported the Guardian.
Eid Da'ajani, 15, found the canister on 20 February, around 100 metres from his home in the village of Buweib, south of Hebron. The device, around 20cm (7.9 ins) long and 5cm in diameter, was lying in a scrubland where the boys were watching the family's goats.
Eid showed it to his cousin, Mohammed, also 15, who said that it might be a bomb, but Eid picked at the tube's foil-like covering, causing it to emit dense white fumes. The boys ran away but the gas clung to them and burnt their clothes, melting their shoes and burning their skin.
"The moment the smoke came. I dropped it, but the smoke followed us. When we escaped that's when the pain started," said Eid.
Military experts consulted by the Guardian said the effect of the smoke was similar to that caused by white phosphorous but could not speculate on the nature of the devices from photographs alone.
The use of white phosphorous in civilian areas is banned by the Geneva conventions yet it is often used by armies for marking and creating smoke screens. Israel used white phosphorous in civilian areas during the Gaza war in 2008-2009 but stopped after international criticism.
Khalid Da'ajani, the boys' grandfather said that 10 people in the area had been killed by discarded army bombs. "We knew it was the army [which left the cannister] but we had never seen anything like this. The burns seemed to spread along their bodies and all we could do was pour water on them which didn't seem to help," he said.
In a statement, a spokesman for the "Israeli" army claimed that the area under discussion served in the past as a training field and is no longer in use.
Almost two weeks after the event the boys have stopped vomiting and suffering from headaches. Large parts of their skin remain bleached white and blistered. Both seem to be recovering but still find it hard to walk.
A second canister, discovered nearby less than a week later, was destroyed by the army in a controlled explosion.
The army does not deny leaving the devices, but would not identify them and suggested they were left over after training exercises. But the area where they were found does not feature on an army map of designated training areas and the canisters appeared new and unweathered, reported the Guardian.
Eid Da'ajani, 15, found the canister on 20 February, around 100 metres from his home in the village of Buweib, south of Hebron. The device, around 20cm (7.9 ins) long and 5cm in diameter, was lying in a scrubland where the boys were watching the family's goats.
Eid showed it to his cousin, Mohammed, also 15, who said that it might be a bomb, but Eid picked at the tube's foil-like covering, causing it to emit dense white fumes. The boys ran away but the gas clung to them and burnt their clothes, melting their shoes and burning their skin.
"The moment the smoke came. I dropped it, but the smoke followed us. When we escaped that's when the pain started," said Eid.
Military experts consulted by the Guardian said the effect of the smoke was similar to that caused by white phosphorous but could not speculate on the nature of the devices from photographs alone.
The use of white phosphorous in civilian areas is banned by the Geneva conventions yet it is often used by armies for marking and creating smoke screens. Israel used white phosphorous in civilian areas during the Gaza war in 2008-2009 but stopped after international criticism.
Khalid Da'ajani, the boys' grandfather said that 10 people in the area had been killed by discarded army bombs. "We knew it was the army [which left the cannister] but we had never seen anything like this. The burns seemed to spread along their bodies and all we could do was pour water on them which didn't seem to help," he said.
In a statement, a spokesman for the "Israeli" army claimed that the area under discussion served in the past as a training field and is no longer in use.
Almost two weeks after the event the boys have stopped vomiting and suffering from headaches. Large parts of their skin remain bleached white and blistered. Both seem to be recovering but still find it hard to walk.
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