Israel Used "Banned Weapon" Against Palestinians

Israel public radio said that the Israeli army admitted that arms other than Hellfire missiles were used in the Gaza attack.

Opposition MP Ahmad Al-Tibi said the army had used a "secret banned weapon" in the raid and accused it of employing military censorship to stop the publication of details related to the issue, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

"This concerns banned munitions whose explosion had an impact that extended over several dozen meters," Al-Tibi said in a statement.

Twelve Palestinians were killed and 70 wounded in five Israeli air strikes on October 20, which targeted Gaza Strip refugee camp of Nusseirat.

"Air Force commander Dan Halutz lied in public when he said after the raid that the Air Force used Hellfire missiles that were fired by Apache helicopters. It was not Apaches that launched the banned weapon," he charged.

Citing the appearance of strange infections among Palestinians, a Palestinian security member said in April that Israel may have used chemical weapons against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a Palestinian security member said Nov. 18.

Meanwhile, another member of parliament Yossi Sarid, of the left-wing Meretz party, threatened to unveil "confidential information" over the Nusseirat raid in October.

Sarid made his threat after Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz refused to tell him the type of weapons used in the raid, during a meeting of parliament's defense and foreign affairs committee, according to the Haaretz daily.

According to Sarid, the army used "powerful munitions with an unusually large range of impact."

On the other hand, Yuval Steinitz, the Likud chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee filed a request to Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin to remove Sarid from Steinitz's committee with a charge that Sarid was threatening to "leak" classified information, Haaretz daily said.

Also, the Knesset asked Sarid not to unveil the information on weapons used in the Israeli raid.

The army used "powerful munitions with an unusually large range of impact," Sarid said.

Although the army officials denied a reported massacre in Nusseirat, enhancing the claim with a video footage showing the area attacked was uninhabited.

"So, from where we got those Palestinians killed and injured whom we found were rushed to hospital after the raid," he wondered, saying that many of the casualties were innocent civilians.

"A ferocious weapon might have been used," he believed.

Meanwhile, the Israeli media accused army officials of misleading them as to the type of weapon used in the raid against 'militants' at the crowded Nusseirat refugee camp in Gaza, Reuters said.

"Reports said the weapon used was more powerful than the Hellfire missile the army said it fired during the attack -- and that helped account for dozens of civilian casualties -- but the military censor has barred publication of the type of missile used," Reuters added.

Israeli public radio said the army had admitted that arms other than Hellfire missiles had been used in the Nusseirat attack, AFP said.

According to public radio, the army is now admitting that it used munitions in the raid other than the Hellfire missile.

In a statement, an army spokesman said that it was "not possible for operational and security reasons to provide all the details of what went on at Nusseirat."

"The version of the facts which we have given was exact... but it could be, because of the sensitive nature of the operation, that we were mistaken in the manner in which we chose to describe the methods used in this operation," the spokesman continued.

The statement, however, did not name the type of missile used in Israeli army raids in its incursions in the Palestinian occupied territories.

On Oct. 13, the Israeli Supreme Court turned down a petition by human rights doctors group against the army's use of internationally-banned weapons against the Palestinians.

The court claimed that it could not determine the kind of weapons the army can or can not use in the attacks against the Palestinians.

Israeli opposition group B'Tselem said in 2000 that actions of the Israeli occupation forces in southern Lebanon constitute such a grave violation of human rights that they amount to war crimes.

"Some of the violations committed by Israel in Lebanon amount to war crimes," B'Tselem had said.