These Explosions Are Saviours

[ConsAreLiars]

Explosives experts from the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) and the United Nations Mine Action Team (UNMAT) are working together to eliminate the remainders of a deadly Israeli attack. The Israeli bombings from land, sea and air left behind large amounts of unexploded ordnance (UXO) in civilian areas.

In a precise, technical routine which takes into account all possible dangers to the MAG and UNMAT workers as well as Palestinian residents living in Gaza, the explosives experts are, detonation by detonation ridding Gaza of the remaining white phosphorous shells.

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Inside each shell are 122 sponges soaked with the lethal chemical, designed to scatter far upon explosion. "Some white phosphorous shells can be only liquid," explains Mark Buswell, MAG's technical director. "But the kind used in Gaza were sponges, more difficult to get rid of." The use of sponge-filled white phosphorous shells by Israel's in its attack on Gaza 18 months back also meant that the probability of injuring civilians was greater.

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The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) says its use among a concentration of civilians is "simply prohibited", and notes that white phosphorous can spread up to several hundred square metres, with the "potential to cause particularly horrific and painful injuries or slow painful death." Over a year after the Israeli war on Gaza, the risk of UXO poses as real a threat as the fresh bombings. These UXOs may detonate even decades later, MAG notes. In rural areas farmers ploughing or workers scavenging stones and steel can inadvertently set the bombs off. The anti-tank mines used by Israeli soldiers to demolish houses, and several of which remain, pose a risk to workers removing rubble or to families returning to their homes to sift for belongings.

More at http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52074

Sure, the deniers will put forward the utterly stupid and transparent BS that WP was never used, and when that fails, that it was only used to create smoke. Those rabid zealots could read every report here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_phosphorus#Gaza_War_.282008-2009.29 , (although they won't even try), and still argue that Israel is good and those they fear are bad, and so, like their right wing counterparts in US politics, argue that everything from mass murder, torture, starvation, collective punishment, ad nauseam is both reasonable and just.