60 thousand black sponge-tipped bullets kill Palestinians

AhlulBayt News Agency - The Israeli police intensified during the last two years the use of a dangerous type of foam bullets against the Palestinians, resulting in killing one Palestinian and increasing the number of the Palestinians injured.

However, no charges were filed against police officers for violating the laws on the uses of this type of bullets.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz said on Sunday that the police fired about 60 thousand black sponge-tipped bullets during the last two years, the majority of which are of a new type and more dangerous.

Haaretz pointed out that more than ten Palestinians from Jerusalem have lost their eyes because of these dangerous bullets, others suffered from fractures in their faces, their hands and feet, while one of the wounded suffered serious damage in the brain. Another two Palestinians suffered from ruptures of the spleen and liver as a result to being shot with this type of bullets, it elaborated.

According to the data handed over by the Israeli police to the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the police fired more than 35 thousand sponge-tipped bullets in 2014, mostly in eastern Jerusalem, and 22 thousand bullets of the same type last year. In 2013, the police fired 7,162 sponge-tipped bullets, 5,859 in 2012, 3,608 in 2011.

Data showed that the police had been using blue sponge-tipped bullets before but since 2014 they have been using the same type of bullets but in black, which are heavier and more dangerous. In the past year the rate of the usage of these bullets has increased to about 94%, according to the newspaper.

According to Haaretz, as a result of the use of this dangerous type of foam bullets, dozens of Palestinians were wounded, including minors and children. By this practice the Israeli police are violating their own systems, though no accusation of violating regulations was drawn against any policeman.

In order to justify the use of this dangerous type of foam bullets, the Israeli police claims that the purpose of using such bullets is to protect the lives of policemen from any threat, while the police regulations prohibit using this type of bullets towards the elderly, children, and pregnant women, and, if used, it should be shot towards the lower part of the body but the police have violated all of these instructions.

The Israeli Police Investigation Unit has opened until today 15 investigation files related to the use of this type of dangerous bullets, but it closed four files of them, and the investigation is still underway on the other files, including the case of the death of a child and cases of several others wounded.



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