PALESTINIANS HIT BY SONIC BOOM AIR RAIDS
Chris McGreal in Gaza
· UN condemns night noise attacks as indiscriminate
· Agencies say they cause trauma and miscarriages
The Guardian
Thursday November 3, 2005
Israel is deploying a terrifying new tactic against Palestinian
civilians in the Gaza Strip by letting loose deafening "sound bombs"
that cause widespread fear, induce miscarriages and traumatise
children.
The removal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip opened the way for
the military to use air force jets to create dozens of sonic booms
by breaking the sound barrier at low altitude, sending shockwaves
across the territory, often at night. Palestinians liken the sound
to an earthquake or huge bomb. They describe the effect as being
hit by a wall of air that is painful on the ears, sometimes causing
nosebleeds and "leaving you shaking inside".
The Palestinian health ministry says the sonic booms have led to
miscarriages and heart problems. The United Nations has demanded an
end to the tactic, saying it causes panic attacks in children. The
shockwaves have also damaged buildings by cracking walls and smashing
thousands of windows.
"I have never heard such a loud explosion. I thought it was right
over the top of my building," said the owner, Tareq Dayyeh. "Sometimes
you hear the rockets the Israelis fire but this was different. I felt
like I was in the middle of a bomb. When I ran out the door I thought
I might find the rest of the street was gone."
Over the past week, Israeli jets created 28 sonic booms by flying at
high speed and low altitude over the Gaza Strip, sometimes as little
as an hour apart through the night. During five days in late September,
the air force caused 29 sonic booms.
A senior Israeli army intelligence source, who the military would not
permit to be named, said the tactic is intended to break civilian
support for armed Palestinian groups. "We are trying to send a
message in a way that doesn't harm people. We want to encourage the
Palestinian public to do something about the terror situation," he
said. "What are the alternatives? We are not like the terrorists who
shoot civilians. We are cautious. We make sure nobody is really hurt."
Yesterday, two medical human rights groups asked the Tel Aviv high
court to outlaw the use of sound bombs on the grounds it amounts to
illegal collective punishment and is detrimental to health.
"The stress is phenomenal," said Eyad El Sarraj, a psychologist and
director of Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, one of the groups
filing the petition. "The Israelis do it after midnight and then every
one or two hours. You try to go to sleep and then there's another
one. When it happens night after night you become exhausted. You
get a heightened sense of alert, waiting continuously for it to
happen. People suffer hypertension, fatigue, sleeplessness.
"For children, the loud noise means danger. Adults may know it's
only a sound but small children feel threatened. They are crying and
clinging to their parents. Afterwards they are dazed and fearful,
waiting for something to happen."
The UN Palestinian refugee agency said a majority of the patients
seen at its clinics as a result of the sonic booms were under 16 and
suffering from symptoms such as anxiety attacks, bedwetting, muscle
spasms, temporary loss of hearing and breathing difficulties.
Although the Israelis say the shockwaves do not cause casualties,
doctors at Gaza's Shifa hospital said the overflights had forced women
to miscarry. The number of miscarriages had increased by 40%, according
to Jumaa Saqqa, a surgeon and hospital spokesman. "There were no other
symptoms and the rise happened after the sonic booms. We can see no
other explanation. The number of patients admitted to the cardiac
care unit doubled. Some of them proved to have suffered serious harm."
Dr Saqqa said one overflight occurred while he was operating. The
Palestinian health ministry estimates the sonic booms have caused at
least 20 miscarriages.
The UN's Middle East envoy, Alvaro de Soto, wrote to the Israeli high
command this week saying he was "deeply concerned at the impact on
children, particularly infants, of the use of sonic booms".
Mr de Soto said he did not accept that the tactic was a legitimate
response to Islamic Jihad and Hamas firing rockets into Israeli
towns. "Sonic booms are an indiscriminate instrument, the use of
which punishes the population collectively. We ask therefore that
their use be stopped without delay," the letter said.
The military was forced to apologise after one sonic boom was
unintentionally heard hundreds of kilometres inside Israel
last week. Maariv newspaper described it as sounding "like a
heavy bombardment. The noise that shook the Israeli skies was
frightening. Thousands of citizens leapt in panic from their beds,
and many of them placed worried calls to the police and the fire
department. The Tel Aviv and central district police switchboards
crashed."
Chris McGreal in Gaza
· UN condemns night noise attacks as indiscriminate
· Agencies say they cause trauma and miscarriages
The Guardian
Thursday November 3, 2005
Israel is deploying a terrifying new tactic against Palestinian
civilians in the Gaza Strip by letting loose deafening "sound bombs"
that cause widespread fear, induce miscarriages and traumatise
children.
The removal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip opened the way for
the military to use air force jets to create dozens of sonic booms
by breaking the sound barrier at low altitude, sending shockwaves
across the territory, often at night. Palestinians liken the sound
to an earthquake or huge bomb. They describe the effect as being
hit by a wall of air that is painful on the ears, sometimes causing
nosebleeds and "leaving you shaking inside".
The Palestinian health ministry says the sonic booms have led to
miscarriages and heart problems. The United Nations has demanded an
end to the tactic, saying it causes panic attacks in children. The
shockwaves have also damaged buildings by cracking walls and smashing
thousands of windows.
"I have never heard such a loud explosion. I thought it was right
over the top of my building," said the owner, Tareq Dayyeh. "Sometimes
you hear the rockets the Israelis fire but this was different. I felt
like I was in the middle of a bomb. When I ran out the door I thought
I might find the rest of the street was gone."
Over the past week, Israeli jets created 28 sonic booms by flying at
high speed and low altitude over the Gaza Strip, sometimes as little
as an hour apart through the night. During five days in late September,
the air force caused 29 sonic booms.
A senior Israeli army intelligence source, who the military would not
permit to be named, said the tactic is intended to break civilian
support for armed Palestinian groups. "We are trying to send a
message in a way that doesn't harm people. We want to encourage the
Palestinian public to do something about the terror situation," he
said. "What are the alternatives? We are not like the terrorists who
shoot civilians. We are cautious. We make sure nobody is really hurt."
Yesterday, two medical human rights groups asked the Tel Aviv high
court to outlaw the use of sound bombs on the grounds it amounts to
illegal collective punishment and is detrimental to health.
"The stress is phenomenal," said Eyad El Sarraj, a psychologist and
director of Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, one of the groups
filing the petition. "The Israelis do it after midnight and then every
one or two hours. You try to go to sleep and then there's another
one. When it happens night after night you become exhausted. You
get a heightened sense of alert, waiting continuously for it to
happen. People suffer hypertension, fatigue, sleeplessness.
"For children, the loud noise means danger. Adults may know it's
only a sound but small children feel threatened. They are crying and
clinging to their parents. Afterwards they are dazed and fearful,
waiting for something to happen."
The UN Palestinian refugee agency said a majority of the patients
seen at its clinics as a result of the sonic booms were under 16 and
suffering from symptoms such as anxiety attacks, bedwetting, muscle
spasms, temporary loss of hearing and breathing difficulties.
Although the Israelis say the shockwaves do not cause casualties,
doctors at Gaza's Shifa hospital said the overflights had forced women
to miscarry. The number of miscarriages had increased by 40%, according
to Jumaa Saqqa, a surgeon and hospital spokesman. "There were no other
symptoms and the rise happened after the sonic booms. We can see no
other explanation. The number of patients admitted to the cardiac
care unit doubled. Some of them proved to have suffered serious harm."
Dr Saqqa said one overflight occurred while he was operating. The
Palestinian health ministry estimates the sonic booms have caused at
least 20 miscarriages.
The UN's Middle East envoy, Alvaro de Soto, wrote to the Israeli high
command this week saying he was "deeply concerned at the impact on
children, particularly infants, of the use of sonic booms".
Mr de Soto said he did not accept that the tactic was a legitimate
response to Islamic Jihad and Hamas firing rockets into Israeli
towns. "Sonic booms are an indiscriminate instrument, the use of
which punishes the population collectively. We ask therefore that
their use be stopped without delay," the letter said.
The military was forced to apologise after one sonic boom was
unintentionally heard hundreds of kilometres inside Israel
last week. Maariv newspaper described it as sounding "like a
heavy bombardment. The noise that shook the Israeli skies was
frightening. Thousands of citizens leapt in panic from their beds,
and many of them placed worried calls to the police and the fire
department. The Tel Aviv and central district police switchboards
crashed."
