TOKYO: MIMAKI Toshiyuki, President of Nihon Hidankyo, or the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, criticized Israel’s brutality against children in Gaza at a press conference on Friday.
“In Gaza, a child is being held and gushes with blood,” he said. “It reminds me of Japan 80 years ago.”
The Hidankyo, a nationwide organization of atomic bomb survivors, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Saturday.
Israeli Ambassador to Japan Gilad Cohen issued a statement criticizing remarks made by Mimaki. “Comparisons between Gaza and Japan 80 years ago are inappropriate and unfounded,” he said.
Reports of victims of the Israeli genocide campaign against the Palestinians have been spread across Japanese media. The daily Mainichi Shimbun reported: “In the Gaza Strip, suspicions have emerged that the Israeli military is using shells with small metal fragments to enhance their lethality in densely populated residential areas. The military emphasizes that it is ‘trying to minimize the damage to civilians’, but experts have raised doubts about the military’s actions.”
The Japanese paper quoted Sidwa, an American volunteer surgeon at the European Hospital in southern Gaza, noticing a number of strange cases while treating patients. Although there was only a small hole of 1 to 2 millimeters in the skin, the muscles and internal organs were torn inside the body, causing serious injuries.
“A bullet would not make such a small wound and ordinary shrapnel would not cause such serious damage to the body,” he said. “It was abnormal.”
Such injuries were seen every day, and granular metal fragments about 1 millimeter in diameter were found inside people’s bodies. When Sidwa asked other doctors working in Gaza, he found that they were also treating similar cases. Some people had multiple wounds from metal fragments. In particular, children’s victims often had blood vessels and nerves damaged, forcing them to have their limbs amputated.
Khalil Al-Dakran, a spokesman for Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in central Gaza, also testified to a reporter from the Mainichi Shimbun. “Many people had their limbs amputated due to the impact of metal fragments,” he said.
Since October last year, more than 12,000 civilians, including 4,000 children, have had their limbs amputated in Gaza. According to the British newspaper The Guardian, these injuries were caused by shells containing hard tungsten metal fragments and bearings. Metal fragments are highly lethal because they explode and scatter. They are also said to be used to kill enemies inside buildings.
According to a 2009 report by the international human rights organization Amnesty International, the Israeli military used a similar weapon in the Gaza conflict from 2008 to 2009. The report described this weapon as “a new type that explodes with many sharp metal fragments.”
Islamic extremists often pack nails and bolts into the explosives used in suicide bombings to inflict greater damage, but the Israeli military says this is a “sophisticated version” of such bombs.
In an interview with the Mainichi, Israeli military spokesman Shoshani explained, “We consider various methods to achieve our military objectives and choose the means that will minimize accidental damage.”
Stephen Semler of the US think-tank Institute for Security Policy Reform, disputes this claim: “I can’t think of any purpose other than to cause widespread casualties.”