Israel uses explosive bullets, gas bomb shells over Palestinians in Gaza
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JERUSALEM - When he was hit by a bullet fired by Israeli forces during demonstrations in Gaza on April 6, Mohammed al-Zaieem lost so much blood, and his left leg was so deformed, he feared he wouldn't survive.
His arteries, veins and a large piece of bone were destroyed. His right leg wasn't spared either as the round created a massive exit wound and then hit it as well.
By the time he was transferred to Istishari Arab Hospital in Ramallah after undergoing seven surgeries in Gaza <link>, there was nothing doctors could do to save his left leg.
It had to be amputated, unbeknown to al-Zaieem, 22, who was unconscious at the time.
"No one dared to tell him [when he woke up from the surgery]. I couldn't," said his cousin of the same name, who lives in the occupied West Bank. <link>
"As he was trying to get up, he suddenly felt the imbalance in his legs. He was in shock. It's like he was searching for his leg. It was the hardest moment for him. He was silent for five minutes while I was talking with him."
Al-Zaieem is among the 24 Palestinians who have had their limbs amputated since the March of Great Return <link> mass protests started on March 30.
Medics on the ground say Israeli forces are shooting at demonstrators with a new type of round - never seen before - known as the "butterfly bullet", which explodes upon impact, pulverizing tissue, arteries and bone, while causing severe internal injuries.
All 24 amputees were shot with a single explosive bullet, including journalists Yaser Murtaja <link> and Ahmad Abu Hussein <link> who succumbed to their wounds after being shot in the abdomen.
"All of their internal organs were totally destroyed, pulverized," said Ashraf al-Qedra, Gaza's health ministry spokesman.
The bullets are the deadliest the Israeli army has ever used, according to al-Qedra.
"Normally, a regular bullet breaks the leg [upon impact]. But these bullets create massive wounds, indicating that an explosion happened inside the body. It's an expanding bullet. It pulverizes the leg, and the leg gets cut off [as a result]," al-Qedra explained.
A wounded demonstrator is evacuated at a recent March of Great Return protest, where Palestinians demand the right to return to their homeland [Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters]
At least 45 Palestinians have been killed since the March of Great Return movement began a month ago - the vast majority by this new type of explosive bullet, health officials say. About 7,000 Palestinians have been wounded.
Gaza's medics have struggled to cope, not just with the sheer number of injured demonstrators that rush through the hospital doors every Friday, but also to properly treat these kinds of ghastly wounds.
Medical staff from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) operating in Gaza say patients who have been shot with the rounds have sustained fist-sized wounds <link> of an "unusual severity" and will have to undergo "complex surgical operations".
"Half of the more than 500 patients we have admitted in our clinics have injuries where the bullet has literally destroyed tissue after having pulverized the bone," said Marie-Elisabeth Ingres, head of MSF in Palestine, in a report <link> .
"Managing these injuries is very difficult... A lot of patients will keep functional deficiencies for the rest of their life."
Explosive rounds were banned internationally under the 1899 Hague Convention because of the "unnecessary injury and suffering caused from large bullet wounds".
Under international law, when the use of force is unavoidable, law enforcement officials must make all efforts to minimise injury.
"We know about the kind of wounds that this bullet creates in the body and from the remnants of the bullets, the shrapnel that they take out. We know that this is something that we've never seen before," al-Qedra said, adding that the rounds have been used since the March of Great Return movement began.
The spokesperson for the Israeli army did not respond to Al Jazeera for comment by the time of publication.
Many have documented <link> how Israel has "turned the occupied territories into a laboratory for refining, testing and showcasing its weapons systems", which it later sells worldwide with the advertisement that the products have been "tested in combat".
Israel <link> is smaller than New York, yet it's believed to be the largest per capita weapons exporter in the world.
The butterfly bullet, however, isn't the only new weapon featured prominently in the protests in Gaza.
Palestinians have also noted an unknown toxic gas launched at demonstrators, which provokes severe convulsions.
The yellow-green gas has caused many who were exposed to it to convulse, their legs and bodies thrashing violently as they lay on the ground. - Al Jazeera
