Today's blog comes from my friend David Halpin FRCS, orthopaedic surgeon and champion of the Palestinian cause. A friend especially of those who are incarcerated in Gaza to which he makes frequent visits on his humanitarian mission. It was sent to him by Rich Wiles a British photographer. David is returning to Gaza shortly.

Please read and comment:

Behind the Wall – "I thought it was Chocolate!"







by Rich Wiles September 13, 2006



Ibraheem is 8 years old and is one of around 25,000 people who live in the Balata Refugee Camp. He lives in a large house but as with any other house in the Camp it can only be large if it extends towards the sky, as there is no land and no space to build in any other direction. The different floors of the building all house members of his immediate family.



He is no different to any other child in the Camp, he attends the Boys School and likes to play with his friends. On the roof of his house in the Balata there is a small circular bathing pool about two metres in diameter. He loves splashing around in the water with his brothers. Furthermore, like any other child of that age anywhere around the world, he is inquisitive, this is how children learn. He also loves chocolate.



A couple of days ago Ibraheem was playing in the camp with his friends. When his friends went home for lunch Ibraheem and his 5 year old brother walked up to the big main road that backs onto his family's house. This is Jerusalem Street which leads from the Huwara Checkpoint, Nablus' infamous southern checkpoint, all the way to the city centre. There are some large rubbish skips along Jerusalem Street and the children can often be seen picking through them and the assorted bags and boxes that are left alongside them. Sometimes they will find discarded (and often broken) toys and games that have been dumped which they will then take home. Sometimes they find old clothes. For Ibraheem it is all part of the adventure of childhood.



On this particular day he didn't find anything of interest or particular use for him in the skips. Things are often just dumped on the side of the road and he was walking along daydreaming and looking around for anything interesting. Something caught his eye. It was brightly coloured and such things always appeal to children. He walked over to it and picked it up. It was approximately 10cms long and was mainly bright green with some other smaller patches of bright colours:



"I picked it up and smelled it. Then I tried to open it but I couldn't. It was hard at the end so I tried to burn it with a lighter to get it open. I still couldn't so I tried to hit it at the end with a stone (to get inside). Then it just started to burn and make a funny noise. It didn't hurt that much at first it was just very hot."



Ibraheem was scared and didn't know what to do. The two brothers ran home as quickly as possible but, as is often the case with children, he tried to hide what had happened because he was afraid that his family would tell him off:



"I was shocked and scared. I didn't want anyone to see because I thought I would get in trouble."



When he got home instead of telling his mother and older brother what had happened he ran straight upstairs to the roof. His hand was really burning now and all he could think about was cooling it down. When he reached the roof he went straight over to the bathing pool where he has had so many good times with his brothers and friends. He plunged his hand deep into the water trying to cool it down and stop the pain. At the same time he heard his oldest brother, Abud, shouting from downstairs, looking for them and telling the boys that their lunch was ready:



"We are on the roof playing. We'll be down in two minutes."



But Ibraheem's young brother was shocked at what had happened and at seeing his brother in so much pain. He ran downstairs to tell Abud what had happened:



"My brother has found a bomb and it has burnt his hand!"



His face was yellow with shock. Abud's heart sank when he heard the news and he set off running upstairs as quickly as possible. He found Ibraheem still with his hand in the pool:



"What's happened? Show me your hand. What have you done?"



Ibraheem did as he was told and showed Abud his hand but was still worried about getting in trouble and tried to hide the truth from his brother:



"I was just playing. I was playing with a lighter and it just exploded."



Abud works with the Palestinian Medical Relief Service, he is a trained medic. Having done this work for five years in a place like Nablus he has seen more than anyone's fair share of hideous sights raging from decapitations, to bullet wounds, to bombing victims to chemical burns. He could see this was not a wound from an exploding cigarette lighter and told Ibraheem this. Their youngest brother was still very much in shock and couldn't keep his knowledge secret:



"It wasn't a lighter. He found something, maybe it was a bomb, and he was playing with it and it just exploded!"



Abud immediately took his injured brother to the medical clinic in Balata, thankfully it's not very far from their house. By this time the pain was constantly intensifying:



"When I reached the clinic it was really hurting and I started to cry."



The medics at the clinic treated him immediately. They dressed the wound and gave him anti-biotic injections and Tetanus shot, plus painkillers. The chemicals released from the device had caused 2nd degree burns over the entire back of his hand from fingertips to wrist.



After finishing the treatment and taking Ibraheem back to the safety of his mother Abud went with a friend to Jerusalem Street to see if he could find the bomb:



"We found the exploded one, the one that had injured Ibraheem. We also found another five or six, which were unexploded. We called the Police who sent some men from the Bomb Disposal Unit. By this time it was dark and they had to search by flashlight. They looked at the ones we had found. There was some small writing on them in Hebrew. One of the Policemen could read Hebrew and he told me it said 'Warning Explosive Chemicals". They told me that when these bombs are warmed at all they go off. Body heat is enough to set them off or if you try to open them they also become active."



The Police went on to say that they had found more of these in the Old City of Nablus and there were rumours that some had also been found in a school playground. Later on that night some people in the Camp said they had seen these being dropped from an Apache Helicopter.



Ibraheem will survive. He is, like all of Balata's residents, a survivor. Currently he must go everyday to the clinic for treatment and redressing of his wounds but hopefully within a few weeks the bandages will be off and his scars should heal with time. He has also learned a valuable lesson, which could one day save his life:



"If I find anything again I will never pick it up! I am too scared now!"



But understanding all this there seems little doubt that these devices are specifically aimed at targeting children. They are small, brightly coloured and are being placed in areas where children often go rummaging around and looking for things. I wrote a week or so ago that very little surprises me anymore out here but I have never heard about these kinds of actions before in the West Bank. Targeting children with toxic chemicals that will be absorbed and become active with body heat is something that can be described as nothing short of pure evil in my mind. What kind of people can carry out these actions? What kind of State can sanction them?



The effectiveness of this disgusting and inhuman practice was demonstrated when Ibraheem explained why he decided to pick the device up and try to open it:



"I thought it was chocolate!"



___________________________________________________________



Richard Wiles is a British photographer and regularly visits the occupied West Bank. He writes reports on the situation and memories of Palestinians in the camps and takes photographs of the life these refugees are living now for future exhibitions. He has been writing regularly under the title "Behind the Wall".



ggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg



*Palestine Human Rights Campaign* _www.palestine.co.nz <http://www.palestine.co.nz>_