PCHR Weekly Report, February 15 – 21, 2001:
Sunday, February 18, 2001: "PCHR’s field officer in Khan Yunis reported that 41 Palestinian civilians, mostly children and women, suffered from suffocation and spasms due to inhaling the highly effective gas. He added that 238 Palestinian civilians suffered from such symptoms as a result of gas inhalation during the period of February 12-20, 2001, 27 of them were still receiving medical care at the hospital of Palestine Red Crescent Society and Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis." (3)

Man in Khan Younis (p. 6)
"It doesn’t make you tear like before. After ten minutes you get so you can’t breathe. You faint. The young men took us to the hospital. We spent yesterday there. They gave us oxygen."

Mohammed Sultan's older brother in Amal Hospital (p. 9)
"I found him holding the mattress and hitting his head against the wall, trying to tear himself apart. Me and our cousins carried him to the hospital."

Ali, age 19 (p. 10)
"I was walking to my relatives’ Abu Akka’s store. We have stores up there also. I went there to bring some things. They shot a gas canister – but I didn’t pay too much attention. I smelled a perfume smell. I didn’t pay attention. I went back. I went back and started having a headache. I left everything and went home. It was an unbearable headache. I told my mother. And she took me down to the street. And then I knew no more."

Ahmed, age 17 (p. 11)
"Then we went, me and the other guys, to take the kids out. The gas canisters started falling to an area while we were trying to leave. We were surrounded between the Israelis and the gas and the canisters were descending on the street. We took the people out as far as we could. Some of them are still in the hospital now. After that I didn’t know what happened to me. This gas – you can’t extinguish the canisters with water or a blanket or anything."

Nasser hospital gas patient (bearded) (p. 13)
"After 45 minutes you start feeling like you can't breathe. The gas hit four of my brothers and other people also - and they will start feeling the same symptoms today. And there are other guys who came yesterday. And they had the same symptoms (rashes) on their backs and legs. You feel like you are losing consciousness. And you can also feel spasms in the muscles...and you feel a burning sensation in your stomach. And you want to scratch your body. You feel hot. A constricting sensation."

Man, mid-30s, al Bahar street, Tufa neighborhood, Khan Younis refugee camp, early March (p. 15)
"I smelled something like mint. And I felt a burning in my chest and nose. After 5 minutes I started to feel dizzy. I thought it could be fatigue / exhaustion - it was the first time I saw a gas like this - before this I had smelled teargas – everyone knew that you just had smell some cologne and then you were okay again -  we never got dizzy, we just had irritation to our nose and eyes, but nothing serious. So I thought it was just exhaustion - I felt myself collapsing on the floor , so I sat on the ground and I felt a spasm moving through my body. I went out and saw my brother and said that I didn't feel well - so he took me home. Afterwards, at home, I had a convulsion and lost consciousness and woke up in Nasser Hospital."

Ibrahim, 14 year-old boy (p. 16)
"..when I was inside all this smoke and gas came at me – I felt suffocated. After 10 minutes my chest started aching. I had stomach cramps. And my head started hurting. And I felt like my entire body was going limp. My legs felt weak so I lay down. My uncle came and asked me ‘what’s the matter?’ I said I feel terrible. I can’t breathe. He started fanning me. And I felt terrible. I tried to stand up so that he could take me to the hospital but I couldn’t – I fell down. They carried me out to the car and we drove to the hospital. In the hospital I lost consciousness. After a few hours I woke up in the hospital and I didn’t know what had happened."

16 year-old girl (p. 18)
"I started getting stomach cramps and headaches – and I couldn’t move my arm – it was stiff. I was wondering what was happening to me – and then I saw my sister – she had stomach cramps as well. We started screaming – and the next thing I knew we were in the hospital. I said "How did we get here?"

11 year-old girl, (p. 20)
"I was sitting here - they started shooting and my leg seized up. And I got a headache - I started throwing up and getting a burning sensation - the next thing I knew I was in the hospital. My head and stomach were aching."

23 year-old girl (p. 21)
"I saw the smoke - I didn't feel anything at the time. I went back home and sat down. After about 15 minutes I started throwing up. They gave me milk and I threw it up. The next morning I went to Nasser Hospital."

Man in Tufa neighborhood (p. 22)
"I was going to the hospital to see a friend who was hit by shrapnel. After about 10 minutes after arriving at the hospital I collapsed. I don't remember what happened - but the guys told me I got seizures - and I got a burning sensation in my chest..The people who were with me say that I smashed the windows of the hospital room."

Man in Khan Younis refugee camp (p. 24)
"And ten-fifteen minutes later [after exposure to gas] I got severe stomach cramps. I felt that my stomach was being torn apart. And a burning sensation in my chest. I couldn’t breathe. People said, "We'll bring you an ambulance." I said, "No it's nothing." I stood for a while and then I fell to the ground. I couldn't control my legs. I couldn't stand up. They brought me an ambulance and took me to Nasser hospital - they gave me milk. But I threw most of it up."

Mohammed Sultan, 18 year-old boy (p. 26)
I got a little bit dizzy and I went to my mother and said "I breathed gas and I feel bad, my head hurts." I went home and after that I don't know what happened after that."

Mother in Tufa neighborhood (p. 36)
" [My daughter] thought I was inside the house. She went in and inhaled the gas - then joined me at my parents house - she was unable to breathe and she collapsed. And the guys came and took her to the hospital."

Abir Radi Abu Zarqa, 14 year-old girl (p. 37)
"After I went into my house there was lots of smoke. I went outside, to my grandmother’s house. I could barely breathe. And after that I knew nothing."

Teenage girl, Tufa neighborhood (p. 38)
"I said 'The house is full of gas - I can't talk.' ..I went back inside the house. My brother banged on the door and said "Quickly quickly - get out." I said "Wait, I need to dress." He said, "Just leave now." I got my cloak and my veil - and I breathed some of the smoke. I felt dizzy. I reached the house behind my  grandmother's home. I felt a bit dizzy. I went into a house and collapsed. They took my to Amal Hospital in an ambulance."

Young girl in Tufa neighborhood (p. 39)
"I was going home from school..then they fired gas. I reached the house and I collapsed at the door. My aunt came and took me inside and then to the hospital. At the hospital I had a lot of stomach cramps. The doctors came and took me upstairs and admitted me."

Victim's cousin, 15 year-old boy (p. 41)
"He breathed some of the gas. He went to his mother and she sent him to the doctor, and she told the doctor what happened. When he went to the doctor, he told him that he was itching and had a bad headache. The doctor sent him home. But he kept having the symptoms. He told his mother that he is having a headache and itching. And then he started getting violent, hitting himself, his face. Then his father and his cousins came and took him to the hospital in the ambulance he was hitting everything and everybody."

Ambulance driver, Nasser Hospital, Khan Younis (p. 28)
"The first patient I brought in I found him jumping up and down and the doctor and medics trying to hold him down. He was straining against them as if he wanted to tear himself apart. Jumping up and down, left and right. Then the second patient, also a gas patient, he was thrashing his limbs around – because this is poison gas."

"[While driving gas patients to hospital] I can hear them saying "Oh, my stomach, oh my head! Let me be! I’m suffocating!" Like they're becoming hysterical."

Second ambulance driver, Nasser Hospital, Khan Younis (p. 29)
"..we got the woman and the children. Some of them were completely unconscious, with convulsions, with a kind of hysteria. They were all shaking." 

"It was only after we had moved the people back to the hospital that we saw that the gas patients were affected by convulsions and breathing troubles."

"The effect is that the patient starts to scratch himself and thrash around and have muscular spasms, starts to rub his chest so that 3- 4 men couldn’t hold him down. I had patients where 2 or 3 people were with him and the patient was bouncing up to the roof of the ambulance and back down. All from the gas. The medics would try to hold him down, but it was impossible...we had oxygen in the ambulance but it didn't help, it didn't do anything to calm them down."

"A guy would be passing by and would go into shaking and spasms from the gas. If they had anything in their hand - a woman carrying her child might throw him down without realizing it. She’d just drop him and start clawing at herself from the gas."

Third ambulance driver (p. 34)
"The convulsions were just unnatural, and by the time I got back to the hospital I was nearly a patient myself. The patients were in spasms, terrified. Something - unnatural, nobody could hold them down, put them under control and get them to the stretcher, except by getting them in a shoulder hold. And with great difficulty."

Doctor Yasser Sheikh Ali Nasser Hospital (p. 40)
"Within the space of an hour, about 50 gas inhalation cases arrived at Nasser Hospital. Their symptoms were as follows: Severe excretions of fluids, extreme difficulty in breathing, recurrent convulsions. The patients didn't respond to treatments which were used in the past with teargas."

"The[y] were from all ages; it affected the old and young. The impression was that this was a gas attack on civilians - most of the gas canisters fell on peoples' homes."

Mohammed Sultan's older brother in Amal Hospital (p. 9)
"He spent 4 days in ICU and then they brought him here - he's been here for about 8 days. Every five minutes he gets the condition - and he's been like this without any change, without any improvement. He can't eat. Yesterday we gave him milk. And we gave him juice, we give him light things - milk, juice, and water. Every five minutes he gets a condition (convulsions) - they give him injections, but the sedatives stop working in 10 minutes. He's very strong - it takes 5 or 6 people to hold him down. He's the most difficult case here. He feels the pain from inside his body. When he relaxes for 3 minutes, he can talk normally. He says he wants to drink something. He says, "It's crawling in my skin like ants." It starts in his arm and then to his stomach, chest, head. He can't comprehend anything. If only one person is holding him down he'll throw him off and smash the place up. And they tell you: "Give him a sedative." So they give him a sedative and he sleeps - 10 minutes later he's awake again and it's the same story."

Ali, age 19 (p. 10)
"I only woke up on the third day. In the hospital. Only after the third day."

Ahmed, age 17 (p. 11)
"Headache. It's hard to breathe, chest constricted, and you lose control of what you're doing, you space out (enter a different world), you forget yourself. Burning. You feel all kinds of things in your chest. Burning. Hard to breathe. Stomach pains. Your head gets heavy."

Nasser hospital gas patient (bearded) (p. 13)
"They give us injections to calm us but then after one hour the symptoms return..I stayed a few days in intensive care. I was unconscious for three days. I had a pain in my head. And then these blotches started appearing. And my legs felt limp. I felt dizzy and I couldn't walk, I fell down. Somebody always has to be with me."

Man, mid-30s, Tufa neighborhood, Khan Younis refugee camp, early March (p. 15)
"..I had a convulsion and lost consciousness and woke up in Nasser Hospital..this repeated itself about every four hours for 4 days. I'll be sitting and I start to feel something in my heart, a tightness in my chest. I have a spasm all though my body and then I lose consciousness. It would go on for 15 minutes half and hour - and I was screaming from the pain in my chest. It was hard to breathe."

Ibrahim, 14 year-old boy (p. 16)
"I get these conditions: My whole body will start shivering and shaking. They ask me, "What's the matter?" But I don't know - my whole body is shaking and I can't stop it. They would give me sedatives and they would fan me because my chest was constricted - and even now I feel a swelling in my chest because of breathing the gas."

Black-veiled woman and her children in her home, Tufa neighborhood, February (p. 17)
"..they treated us with oxygen and we stayed there for 3 days - because of the convulsions that happened to my children and I. I would shake - I was having convulsions - and I couldn’t speak - my children also couldn't speak - we had headaches and felt constricted and we were shaking."

16 year-old girl (p. 18)
" I would get headaches. And my legs would seize up - and I would feel pain in all of my body. And my chest would become constricted. And I feel like I want to tear myself apart. And I couldn't sleep - I could barely walk."

11 year-old girl (p. 20)
"My stomach was hurting, my head - I got stomach cramps - and my leg used to cramp up."

23 year-old girl (p. 21)
"They told me that the people who had inhaled the gas had to stay in the hospital. I went on the 13th and stayed 'til the 17th. I would get stomach cramps and headaches. And if I stood up I would fall to the ground. I would faint - I could barely get out of bed...It was very painful in my chest, and I would get stomach cramps. And whenever I screamed they would give me sedatives."

Man in Tufa neighborhood (p. 22)
"Because what we felt was headaches. My muscles felt weak...when I was in one of the convulsions in the hospital - the guys told me I was fine, and then suddenly I became hysterical - it was as if my chest caught on fire. I started getting headaches and seizures I made a motion like this (gestures). There was a window behind me in the hospital room - hit the glass...and I still have the glass shards in my arm."

Man in Khan Younis refugee camp (p. 24)
"They tell me I was unconscious until Monday morning - I woke up and they told me I was in the hospital.
For about 12 hours they were giving me sedatives - they told me that I had been hysterical. I didn't remember anything but I felt I couldn't breathe - they gave me oxygen - I got stomach cramps. They told me that I was in a condition of madness, that I was thrashing around, smashing around - but I wasn't aware of anything. They gave me sedatives - a few hours later the same thing happened again - stomach cramps, difficulty breathing - and an inability to stand up. And the guys with me held me down - the same thing happened many times. I was in the hospital for a week."

Mohammed Sultan, 18 year-old boy (p. 26)
"I felt in my head, my head - I felt like my head was going to explode. Then it started moving into my body, my hands. Then I started scratching - it felt like something was moving in my body. I was trying to scratch it out. No matter how much I scratched at it I couldn't get any relief. It goes up into my head and I try to scratch it out. My brother, Fahd, said that I had lost consciousness and he took me to the hospital and that I was in a terrible state, "It took 13 people to hold you down - and even they were unable to." So they gave me a shot and then I knew nothing."

"After I came out of intensive care the pain came back again and I started scratching my face and my body. And the pain started moving around with my blood. Every short while the pain came back and they would give me an injection. But it was useless. I try to scratch apart my body and everything. It starts in my head, and I scratch at my head and my face It starts in my head – and headache that builds up more and more pressure and then Moves down into my body. And so I start trying to scratch it out and they try to hold me down. But I can’t stop scratching I want to scratch the entire world to pieces. When it moves to my face I want to scratch it out my face and then the same all over my body. They give me a sedative and then 5 minutes later it's as if they hadn’t given me anything. The pain comes back and I start trying to scratch the pain out of my body again. Every 5 minutes."

Mother of teenage girl Tufa neighborhood (p. 38)
"When I went to the hospital I was standing next to her, holding her, she would tell people, "I want my mother!", and I was right there with her. They would say to her "Here is your mother." And she said, "No - this is not my mother." She would speak gibberish, nonsense. It was like you weren't speaking to a normal person. It was me and her aunts and her grandmother holding her down - and we couldn't."

Victim's cousin 15 year-old boy (p. 41)
"They took him to the ICU and gave him injections. They gave him injections to calm him down. But every two hours he would wake up and have the same thing. After the effect of the injection wears off he starts breaking everything and hitting everyone, anyone who comes near him – he strikes out at them. They took him to intensive care and he stayed there for 5 days. They kept giving him injection after injection - but the drugs wore off in a couple hours and the symptoms continued. After he left ICU they kept giving him injections but they would ware off. Doctors said that there is no cure for his case. He can become addicted to the injections."

Second ambulance driver, Nasser Hospital, Khan Younis (p. 29)
"We had no idea that this gas would affect the nerves in this way. It was only after we had moved the people back to the hospital that we saw that the gas patients were affected by convulsions and breathing troubles. If they had knives they would have cut themselves open, because they didn't know what they were doing. They would have cut themselves open just to let the gas out.

Dr. Salakh Shami Amal Hospital (p. 35)
"As for their symptoms, they varied from patient to patient. There was one group of patients suffering from hysteria. And others were suffering convulsions. Another large group was suffering from difficulty breathing and a burning pain in their eyes and chests. There were also patients suffering from stomach pains and severe headaches."

Doctor Yasser Sheikh Ali Nasser Hospital (p. 40)
"The hospital admitted more than 25 - 30 patients. We started treating them and their symptoms were recurring. The patients didn’t respond to the normal treatment used in the past, which led us to consult with the Ministry of Health to find out whether a new gas was being used. This took time, so we treated the patients with an intensified regime of our normal treatment for teargas, which consisted of oxygen, cortisone and steroids, and medication ease breathing. And anti-convulsant drugs. And the conditions started improving, but most people continued to complain of recurring symptoms - strange aches in the joints, various blotches on the skin, chest pains, continuous headaches. Despite the fact that the routine blood tests showed nothing unusual."

"In what followed, the cases of convulsions continued with many of the patients - and cases of hysteria. And psychological complications as well - the patients were afraid of the next onset of their attacks, and so even as they were suffering from their symptoms they also feared the next onset."

Man in Khan Younis (p. 6)
"We just now got out of the hospital. Even now I cough and vomit and my condition you can say my chest - it's like a stone in my chest filled with air."

"Even now the young people in the area are having muscle spasms. So this gas is not natural, as they say. This must be a poisonous gas."

"Because our chests are all blocked up, even our hands, we can’t lift things. This must be nerve gas."

"Our nerves, speaking for myself. My hands – I feel like they’re broken. I feel like there’s something broken in it. And my other hand as well. Even my knees.  I feel like they’re cracking...Even now that I’m better – I feel like all my nerves are broken."

Ahmed, age 17 (p. 11)
"After that I was released and went back home. Then I got the spasms at home. I went to Nasser hospital. And spent a day there. Then I came here."

--Why?

"Because some people are going home and then coming back to the hospital with symptoms. So I said let me come here. That guy over there – he was treated and went home – then he started going through the stuff again and they brought him back here."

Nasser hospital gas patient (bearded) (p. 13)
"I've been here for 12 days."

--Do you still have the same symptoms?

"I feel dizzy and I have headaches. And when I have the headache I don’t want to see any light. I want to cover my face, until I cool off. Other people are also having the same blotches…Yesterday night a guy came in and told me that he and his brother had the same symptoms. On his back – his brother had it on his legs (points to a dark brown blotch on his stomach) like this one but much bigger and in a circle. I have one here and another guy has one on his back. The doctor told me not to scratch at the blotches. And he told me that if I scratch it it’ll get bigger and bigger. I don’t touch it – they give me injections to calm me down."

Man, mid-30s, Tufa neighborhood, Khan Younis refugee camp, early March (p. 15)
"..after 4 days my body started to feel different, the convulsions started getting less – my body started to feel different, after 3 days I started to get these spots on my body – after the third day."

11 year-old girl (p. 20)
--How long did you stay in the hospital?
"Five days...Where it used to hurt, now I have spots."

23 year-old girl (p. 21)
"..even today I still feel a tightness in my chest, and a cough. I have a temperature. I feel dizzy if I stand up. And I throw up. I feel burning in my chest, as if somebody is scratching with their nails in my chest."

Man in Tufa neighborhood (p. 22)
"I've been hit by shrapnel and live ammunition several times - and in a few days I was fine - but this gas is not so easy...Some people including myself have continuous headaches - severe headaches - burning sensations, burning in the chest, in the joints - sometimes I can hardly sleep at night. I go [to] the hospital and they give me injections - and nothing more."

Man in Khan Younis refugee camp (p. 24)
"Four days after I left the hospital I was at home and I felt fine. So I thought I’d go and have a haircut. I went to the barber. And he finished half my head when I got severe stomach cramps and a burning pain in my chest - I couldn't control myself. So the barber and two guys carried me to the car and drove me to the hospital. I was shaking and in seizures - and they gave me a sedative. I slept for about 4 hours and woke up fine again."

Mohammed Sultan, 18 year-old boy (p. 26)
"It eats me like ants and I try to scratch it out - and they gave me all those injections for nothing - I scratch and scratch and the pain never goes away. It crawls in my body like ants - but the worst thing was the headache. I come and go - if I sit in the sun for a while I start to get a headache and I feel pressure building up. I feel weak and tired and my bones ache. I ate yesterday and threw it up and I haven't eaten anything since then. As much as I try to forget and the guys make me laugh - it's useless - I keep on getting these headaches. As much as I try to control it - I still keep on getting these headaches."

Mother in Tufa neighborhood (p. 36)
--Are the spots on you baby’s face from the gas?

"All of it is from the gas. He didn’t have anything on his face before. He’s started wheezing when he breathes. And his chest aches. His chest never bothered him before."

Mother of teenage girl Tufa neighborhood (p. 38)
"Twice after she left hospital we had to take her back. Once she was at school and the teachers took her to the hospital - they called me and told me that my daughter was in a coma. This was a week after she had been discharged from the hospital [the first time]."

Victim's cousin 15 year-old boy (p. 41)
"He was discharged and went home. But he kept on having the symptoms over and over...After he left and went back home, he didn't improve at all. He was discharged and went back home. He kept having the symptoms every other hour. He gets violent. Hits himself, his mother, everyone. He breaks things in the kitchen - dishes, kitchen supplies, and he hits himself, scratches himself so badly. Then we took him back to the hospital."

Second ambulance driver, Nasser Hospital, Khan Younis (p. 29)
"At that time, the doctors had no idea how to treat these patients. They would give the patients tranquilizers so they would calm down. And they would leave the hospital for a day and they would come back with the same symptoms."

Dr. Salakh Shami Amal Hospital (p. 35)
" Some patients stayed in the hospital for a couple days, some stayed for a week and others for 10 days."

Doctor Yasser Sheikh Ali Nasser Hospital (p. 40)
"We still have 10 cases who we would like to send abroad for treatment." [6 weeks later]

"Even now we still have patients suffering from recurrences of their original symptoms: headaches, chest pains, aches in the knees, fatigue, blotches on the skin that had not been their before. They vary in age from 60 to 15 years old."

(22) Hazardous Substances Databank (HSDB), National Library of Medicine, TOXNET, Acephate, Registry Numbers: 30560-19-1
http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov - Return to text