Israeli weapons with shrapnel designed to maximize casualties, doctors say

LONDON

Surgeons volunteering in Gaza have reported catastrophic injuries among children caused by Israeli-made weapons designed to maximize shrapnel dispersion, resulting in severe casualties, according to The Guardian on Thursday.

The surgeons, who have been working in the territory over recent months, shared their harrowing experiences with The Guardian, highlighting the dire consequences of these weapons on the civilian population, particularly children.

Doctors at Gaza's European Hospital and al-Aqsa Hospital described performing numerous operations on children wounded by tiny fragments of shrapnel, which often leave barely visible entry points but cause extensive internal damage.

These weapons, they say, appear to be intentionally designed to increase the number of casualties, according to Amnesty International.

"About half of the injuries I took care of were in young kids," said Feroze Sidhwa, a trauma surgeon from California who worked at the European Hospital in southern Gaza in April.

"We saw a lot of so-called splinter injuries that were very, very small to the point that you easily missed them while examining a patient. Much, much smaller than anything I’ve seen before but they caused tremendous damage on the inside."

Weapons experts noted that the injuries align with the characteristics of Israeli-made weapons aimed at maximizing harm rather than merely destroying infrastructure.

This raises questions about their use in densely populated civilian areas.

Six foreign doctors who recently served at Gaza's hospitals confirmed the prevalence of injuries from these fragmentation weapons, leading to an alarming number of amputations since the conflict began.

"Children are more vulnerable to any penetrating injury because they have smaller bodies," explained Sidhwa.

"Their vital parts are smaller and easier to disrupt. When children have lacerated blood vessels, their blood vessels are already so small it’s very hard to put them back together. The artery that feeds the leg, the femoral artery, is only the thickness of a noodle in a small child. It’s very, very small. So repairing it and keeping the kid’s limb attached to them is very difficult."

Mark Perlmutter, an orthopedic surgeon from North Carolina, also worked at the European Hospital and corroborated Sidhwa's observations.

The surgeons' accounts reveal a grim reality where the youngest and most vulnerable are disproportionately affected, suffering life-changing injuries from weapons designed for maximum impact.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.

Over 38,300 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 88,300 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Nine months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.