Israeli Planes Spray Chemicals On Palestinians

Israeli Planes Spray Toxic Chemicals On Negev Palestinians

SOUTHERN NEGEV, March 4, 2003 (IPC)- - Israeli light planes carrying toxic chemicals raided today wide arable lands owned by the southern Negev Palestinian inhabitants, and sprayed these prohibited chemicals over the area. Many residents, including children were injured, as well as large numbers of cattle were killed, in addition to the destruction of the crops that were cultivated on these lands.

In a distributed press statement, of which IPC got a copy from, the Al Andalus society in the Negev area, said that several Israeli planes sprayed toxic chemicals over a wide area of arable land owned by the inhabitants of the southern Negev, who are mainly Bedouins and live on agriculture and raising cattle.

Eyewitnesses said that many children were taken to nearby hospitals for treatment, and medical sources described their condition between moderate and critical. The toxic materials also caused the death of many cattle heads, and caused gross damages to a number of houses and cultivated lands.

The toxic substance is known for its hazardous effects on human life and destruction of environment for tens of years to come.

This raid is not the first of its kind in targeting native Palestinians and their way of life. The 120,000 inhabitants, most of which live in unrecognized and abandoned villages in the desert, lack the most basic of services. Part of them are still living in tents, as a way to express their objection to the Israeli occupation's policies that aim to strip them off their lands for a financial compensation, and then moving them to villages with a totally different and unacceptable way of life. These people still pay a large price for being on their land.

The society appealed to all the living consciences in the world to urgently intervene and stop these Israeli barbaric acts of racial extermination against the Palestinians in the Negev area. They also called the media to shed some light over their situations, as a part of the forgotten and marginalized Arab population inside Israel, in order to expose the racist actions committed against them.

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