Calls for Probe Into Israel’s Use of Depleted Uranium in Gaza

Date: 10 June 2024 - 21:37

News ID: ۱۲۸۲۰۴

GAZA (Dispatches) – Palestine’s Permanent Representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Saleh Abdel Shafi called on the agency to investigate whether the Zionist regime has used depleted uranium in ammunition they have fired in Gaza.
“The amount of ammunition used [in Gaza] has already exceeded the amount of ammunition used in the Second World War,” Shafi told Al Jazeera.
“This fact alone should trigger curiosity by the IAEA and other specialized agencies to go into Gaza and do a thorough investigation,” he said, adding, “So far we haven’t seen any action”.
While depleted uranium ammunition is not considered a nuclear weapon, its emission of low levels of radiation has led the IAEA to warn of possible dangers of exposure.
Israel has dropped more than 70,000 tons of bombs on the Gaza Strip since last October, far surpassing the of Dresden, Hamburg, and London combined during World War II, according to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.
“It is estimated that Israel has dropped more than 70,000 tons of explosives on the Gaza Strip in addition to its bulldozing operations, resulting in the destruction of all buildings at a distance of up to one kilometer in the East and North of the Strip in order to create a so-called buffer zone,” the Geneva-based human rights monitor organization said.
Israel waged the genocidal war against the Gaza Strip, targeting hospitals, residences, and houses of worship after Palestinian resistance movements launched a surprise operation, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, against the usurping regime on October 7.
At least 37,084 Palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children, and another 84,494 individuals have sustained injuries. More than 1.7 million people have been internally displaced during the war as well.