Dr.
Yousef Abu Safiya, Head of the Palestinian Environment Quality Authority |
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On February 15, 2001, Senior Palestinian Authority minister Nabil Sha'ath reportedly
said that a sample of the poison gas used in Khan Younis (see page 3)
would be sent to "an international center for analysis." (1)
Since then,
the Palestinian Authority has apparently made only one comment about this proposed
testing. At the end of a September 18, 2003 article about Israel's nuclear complex
at Dimona, the PA's International Press Center quoted Dr. Yousef Abu Safiya, Head
of the Palestinian Environment Quality Authority, about the poison gas attacks
in Khan Younis during February, 2001:
"We ascertained
that these are nerve gases, by analyzing a specimen of the Israeli bombs that
didn't burn completely. Through analysis, we revealed that it is composed of a
group of nerve gases, due to which affected citizens suffered from spasms..this
is..evidence [that Israel] used internationally-banned weapons against the Palestinian
people.” (2)
If the Authority
did indeed complete such tests, the detailed results should be made public. Until
this is done, Dr. Safiya's comments cannot be considered definitive.
However, some
of the doctors who cared for the victims suspected nerve gas, as did chemical
warfare expert Tareg Bey from UC-Irvine, who told the Chicago Reader that the
symptoms described to him “all fit really well to nerve gas”, though
he was puzzled by the reported mint fragrance and skin rashes. (3)
Medical reports
regarding nerve gases note that they produce a unique range and sequence of symptoms
that tends to distinguish them from other known poisons, especially if the symptoms
appear simultaneously in groups exposed to an unknown gas. (4)(5)(6)
To shed further
light on this question, the well-documented symptoms reported by victims, eyewitnesses,
and medical personnel in the poison gas attacks of early 2001 can be compared
with the reported symptoms of nerve gas poisoning.
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