The bombs that terrorists use are among the most evil weapons ever invented. The explosives are bad enough, but palestinians have chosen to add metal pieces to the bombs to increase their deadliness, and to deliberately wound as many Israelis as possible. These extras are manufactured in “metal shops” throughout Gaza and the West Bank, which is why you hear about the IDF firing missiles into “metal shops,” and see the owners bemoaning the loss of their factories and insisting they were not involved in the manufacture of bombs.
The mechanics of a terrorist bomb:
The explosive belt usually consists of several cylinders filled with explosive (de facto pipe bombs), or in more sophisticated versions with plates of explosive. The explosive is surrounded by a fragmentation jacket that produces the shrapnel responsible for most of the bomb’s lethality, effectively making the jacket a crude body-worn claymore mine. Once the vest is detonated, the explosion resembles an omnidirectional shotgun blast. The most dangerous and the most widely used shrapnel are steel ball bearings 3-7 mm in diameter. Other shrapnel material can be anything of suitable size and hardness, most often nails, screws, nuts, and thick wire. Shrapnel is responsible for about 90% of all casualties caused by this kind of device.
The metal shards do the most damage.
The main killing power of any bomb is not the explosion itself (the shock wave is rather small because of small quantity of explosives used) but the fragments of its jacket, which are launched in all directions by the explosion. In air force bombs and in many types of artillery shells the pieces are formed out of the steel casing, which is split into small pieces in an explosion.
In anti-personnel tank shells and in some kinds of artillery shells part of the internal payload is dedicated to shrapnel- such a shell is filled with several thousand of needles (“flechettes”). Sometimes these flechettes are made of plastic, which do not show up on x-rays. Palestinian terrorists realized this principle long ago and use it widely. More than 90% of the victims injured are hit by the bomb shrapnel.
The most widely used and the most dangerous shrapnel consists of ball bearings 3-7 millimeters in diameter. In the most severe terrorist acts – in the Delfinarium, Sbarro, in the banquet hall in Netania – the bombs of the suicide-bombers were filled with steel balls.
In an explosion, the balls are launched with such speed, that their power is close to a bullet’s. You could say that in an explosion the suicide-bomber shoots several hundred bullets in a single moment.
Aside from steel balls, nails, screws and so on, nuts and washers are also used. Nuts are easily glued together to form tiny plates that can be pressed in, or even tied by a tape to the plates of the explosive to hide it better. Likewise, nuts are also stringed on a thread or on a piece of wire, as shown on the photographs.
Israeli doctors have become so accustomed to suicide bombs, they have developed a trauma routine that made an American trauma surgeon wonder:
It certainly gives one pause, as an American living in a free, open, and safe society, to understand that the Israelis have dealt with suicide bombings long enough to have their national trauma registry reflect that fact.
This is what gave him pause:
Primary blast injury is caused by the rapid outward spread of the shock wave. Injury to gas-containing organs, such as perforation of the middle ear and blast lung injury (BLI) are most common (22.1% and 18.2% of victims, respectively). Of all patients with BLI, 82% of victims aboard buses and in semiconfined spaces will suffer from moderate and severe forms of BLI compared with 33% of victims in open spaces. S econdary blast injury is caused by penetrating missiles that are propelled by the blast wave. More than 85% of victims of suicide bombing attacks (SBA) suffer from penetrating shrapnel and debris, most commonly to the head. Tertiary blast injury results from a patient’s body being displaced by expanding gases. Burns are termed quaternary blast injury and are also notably more common after explosions inside confined spaces compared with open spaces (33.9% versus 5% of victims, respectively). The hallmark of injuries after an SBA is the combination of blunt injury, multiple penetrating injuries with extensive soft tissue damage, and burns. Half of all patients hospitalized will be seen in a trauma unit setting and the same proportion will be admitted to an intensive care unit. Victims of SBAs are more severely injured compared with other trauma victims. Typical injuries include penetrating injury to the head (55%), extremities (49%), and torso (40%), burns (27%), open fractures (22%), and BLI (18%).
Here is an article I have referenced before, which contains X-Rays of the victims of palestinian terrorist bombs.
Messing said one of the victims he saw while in Jerusalem had around 300 individual metallic fragments within his body. The metal fragments, measuring from millimeters to centimeters, were imbedded in the young man literally from head to toe, he said.
“Several of the fragments penetrated into his vital organs. He sustained a punctured colon, a collapsed lung, and a lacerated liver and kidney. I could actually feel the nails under his skin where they had burrowed and lodged,” Messing recalls.
Shrapnel is what killed Phillip Balhasan, who stayed alive long enough to realize his children had survived, and to hug them tightly before he collapsed.
But even this is not enough for the terrorists. They also soak the shrapnel in rat poison, because it causes hemorrhaging — victims may bleed to death before they can get to the hospital.
Remember all of this, when you hear the world tell Israel to “use restraint” in responding to this attack. Remember all of this, when you read about the innocent metal shop owners who insist their shops were only making nails and screws for construction purposes.
Remember all of this, when Israel is the nation that is demonized by the blind, hateful people who wear checked kaffiyehs at anti-war protests, and call Israel an “apartheid state” for building a separation barrier — to keep out the monsters who would use bombs like I have just described.
Remember this, when you look at the pictures of the results of the bombing, and notice the thousands of dents in the metal surrounding the bombing area — the mark of the ball-bearings and other metal shrapnel.
These are the people with whom the world sympathizes: Those who create and set off the bombs. Not the victims. The bombers.
And that’s the worst evil of all.
First-time visitors: There is much more on the main page.
Upate 4/22: Apparently, this post has been linked on various international link sites, including a British one. There is now an inundation of people who think I will post their anti-Israel rants. Read this post, A No Israel Bashing-Zone, and you will understand why your comment doesn’t appear. If you don’t like the policy, well, gee. Life’s tough.
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Rat bait would not work so rapidly to cause bleeding. It takes five days or so to take effect.
Meryl, not to minimize the horror these bastards inflict but, if it makes you feel any better, putting rat poison on the shrapnel is a largely useless tactic. The anticoagulant, warfarin or brodifacoum*, cannot cause hemorrhaging on the way to a hospital. It can only cause hemorrhaging over the course of a few days when the patient is already in the hospital and can be treated. Warfarin and related compounds act by slowing or halting the production of vitamin-K-dependent coagulation enzymes.
*It’s possible, I suppose, that there is another type of fast-acting anticoagulant used in some poisons but I can’t find references to any.
I can’t find the link, but I do recall seeing an article that Israeli doctors have developed fast-acting coagulants as a result of suicide bombings.
Although it’s possible I’m mixing up the new medical routines that Israeli doctors have developed to save the lives of bombing victims. I know they are advising and training other countries’ medical personnel, and that Israeli doctors have helped train American military doctors to help save lives in Iraq.
Rat poison was used in the 17 June suicide bombing at a bus stop in the annexed Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo and on 27 March in a suicide bombing in the seaside resort of Netanya. The terrorists reportedly use the poison, which is an anti-coagulant, to cause survivors to bleed more profusely from their wounds and to increase the terror aspect. [View report]
Unfortunately the ABC page linked to does not exist.
That they have developed such coagulants doesn’t surprise me because they are on the front lines of fighting terrorists, and bomb victims are very often hemorrhaging simply from multiple wounds (you probably didn’t mix up routines, it sounds like a very sensible thing to do for bomb victims). Nor does it surprise me that they are training Americans in new techniques.
Sadly, it also does not surprise me that Palis would use such a symbolically horrible, yet realistically useless, tactic.
Each time I post, someone sneaks in ahead of me.
Cynic, as noted before, it works to “increase the terror aspect”, but it doesn’t actually work to cause additional bleeding. No doubt the scrotes think it does.
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Rat poison is chemically similar to coumadin, a human anti-coagulant. It works by preventing the liver from producing coagulant proteins that are released into the bloodstream. It has to reach a high level in the bloodstream and must be constantly present for many days before it has its effect. There is no local effect of warfarin on coagulation. This part of the article makes no sense.
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The so-called “Palistinian” people are on a greased conveyor towards extinction. They are a people devoid of any culture besides hate and death. No such people can survive long. Soon, they will be gone, and no one will ever notice. They are committing mass suicide.
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Your article really brings the reality of daily life in Israel to light. That people can face down these horrors and yet still function, still live life daily and without fear (relatively speaking) is amazing to me. I am in awe of them.
Thank you for writing it, and writing it well.
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Sadly, it also does not surprise me that Palis would use such a symbolically horrible, yet realistically useless, tactic.
Reminds me of stories of Mafia gangsters coating their bullets with garlic in the theory that they would cause gangrene to set in on a non-fatal injury.
Mr. Summers is correct. I went a’ researching as soon as I read your ‘rat poison’ quote on Instapundit. I wanted to have a verifiable source for attribution as it was so horrific a thought, but I had a hard time finding one. I did, however, find this Slate article addressing the rat poison rumors/facts/effects. The author (Jack Shafer, Slate’s Editor at large) ends with:
There’s enough hate and horror in their actions without the rat poison canard.
Did you read the comments before yours? Others have already said the same thing.
Unlike the Slate guy, I think it’s entirely plausible they are soaking shrapnel in rat poison. I just know it won’t do what they think it will.
I am also… well, amused is not the right word, but I think it fascinating that a possible side effect of the fear that they might be doing so is better treatments for bomb victims (Meryl’s comment #4)
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Seems to me that the actual effects of coating the shrapnel with rat poison is somewhat irrelevant. I think what Meryl is getting at the frighteningly malicious intent of someone who would do this in hopes of making their act of terror as viscious and mortal as possible.
She didn’t accuse them of being scientificly competant, just evil.
Her point still stands, in my opinion.
When I read this story it just sounded a bit over the top. It didn’t take more than five seconds to search Google (rat poison bombs) to discover this, http://www.slate.com/?id=2067937, Slate article that sounds more believable. Do we really need to exaggerate or use unverifiable data to make the case that suicide bombers don’t deserver sympathy?
And it didn’t take you any time at all to read the previous comments, I’m guessing.
Well, yes I guess I did, since I used a quote. And I thought only to add a different view to ‘others said the same thing’. I hadn’t realized I was any more redundant than anyone else. Apologies.
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Does anybody else find it somewhat surreal that the issue of whether or not the shrapnel was doctored with rat poison is getting so much play here?
I mean, is the question whether the bombers are super-duper-evil or just super-evil?
Anonymous, having written about Jewish and Israeli issues since the spring of 2002, no, I am not the least bit surprised.
You see, if you bring up the issue of Israeli suffering you’re supposed to bring it up in the context of the suffering they inflict on the palestinians.
If you point out that the suicide bomb, as developed by palestinian terrorists, is one of the most horrific weapons in the world, you are going to be confronted with people insisting that your facts are wrong, the rat poison argument is over-the-top, or a host of other caveats.
Surreal? No, not at all. What you have here is a perfect example of a typical comments discussion about Israel, minus the Israel-bashing, because I police my comments and insist the haters go post elsewhere.
The point of my post — the horrific effects of a terrorist suicide bomb — gets diluted in a discussion over whether or not the bombers actually soaked the shrapnel in rat poison, whether this is effective (a valid issue, which I frankly don’t mind being raised), and whether or not I should have even included the rat poison, what with there being some sources who say it never happens.
It’s distraction, Anonymous. Watch the magician’s left hand while with his right, he hides the coin he will put out of your ear.
As I said: No, I don’t find it surreal. I find it to be the status quo when discussing Israel.
Not for nothing, but perhaps instead of crafting snarky responses to people who are doing research on your story and helping to get to the awful truth of the matter you could perhaps be a bit gracious and, oh, I don’t know, let’s call it ‘responsible’ and perhaps update your original post to include the new information. It does nothing to disminish the evil that these terrorists do and only enhances the credibility of those of us fighting them. But that’s just the way I’d handle it.
Why? My point wasn’t whether or not the terrorists drench their shrapnel in rat poison. My point was the horror of the suicide bomb’s makeup, the development of a weapon whose sole purpose is to murder and maim as many people as possible, and that this weapon is nearly always implemented in the civilian population.
I found news articles citing the use of rat poison. Other readers found news articles refuting that. Why should I change my post, particularly in light of the fact that readers posted their links in my comments section? That’s what a discussion is all about, is it not? Discussing things?
Lastly, I’m happy you’d handle things your way. That is your right. I’m going to assume you are equally as happy that I be allowed to handle things my way — particularly on my blog.
Tree hugging sister: I think I’m the one who owes you an apology. You were adding something different, even though it was in a similar vein as another commenter. Apologies.
With all due respect Ms. Yourish, it’s not that at all and has nothing to do with Israel. It has to do with ‘facts’. You stated ‘rat poison’ as a fact in your POST, not contained in your sources quotes. Inflammatory, unconfirmed (closest to an ‘official news report’ I could find, last paragraph) claims plastered over blogs/emails/advocate sites again and again do NOT make them FACTS by virtue of repetition, no matter how you might wish it so. Note I did NOT say ‘improbable, unbelievable, etc.’, because they well could be BUT, right now, they’re just not verifiable FACT.
These animals don’t need embellishing to make them any worse and you do yourself a disservice.
Thank you, Ms. Yourish. That was very gracious. And we all share your anger and outrage, believe me.
Tree hugging sister: Yes, I did reference the rat poison stories, in two of the links I provided. I did not link the stories with the words “rat poison,” but they’re in the archive file in which I quoted the Newsweek story (“hemorrhaging”), and the article link for the X-Ray pictures.
Jack Shafer is not the be-all and end-all of investigative reporting. These people have planted bombs on donkeys, sent retarded children to blow themselves up, have pregnant women hide bombs underneath their clothes, disguise themselves as women and Orthodox Jews in order to commit atrocities, hide terrorists in ambulances, convinced burn victims to use their humanitarian pass into Israel to stage a terror attack, and hold mock funerals for the cameras in which you can see the body get up and walk away after they dropped him.
I don’t think it’s much of a stretch to believe that they also dip the metal shrapnel that they put into suicide bombs in rat poison.
How awfully right you are ~ it’s all too easy to believe the things they are so diabolically, inhumanly capable of. Their malevolence knows no bounds.
And I’ll just leave it at that.
Why… if I didn’t know better, I’d say I was just snarked.
(Gads, no. I was raised better than that. {8^P)
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Apparently, according to Ms. Yourish, Palestinians don’t want peace. All Palestinians want is to kill Jews and force them off the previously-unoccupied land that they legally purchased in the ’40s.
Yes, Ms. Yourish, suicide bombs are horrible, but to say that “this is what the the Palestinians [as a whole] are doing to the Israelis” or to use this as a justification for shooting rockets into crowded residential areas is a dangerous logical fallacy.
You know, normally, I don’t bother approving comments like the above. They violate my comments policy.
But this one, I thought I’d let stand.
I just love being told I’m using a logical fallacy by someone who utterly demonstrates what logical fallacy means.
Should we count how many were abused in the above comment?
Nah. Too much work to look it up.
Perhaps, mxrugge, you may want to actually read my post before commenting on it.
Or at the very least, cite the misquotes you have put in your comment.
Oh, wait. You can’t. Because I never said them.
id like to say FROM FIRST HAND EXPERINCE.. that thouse sharpel suck badly.. i was near a palestinian terrorist attack in tel aviv and i got 3 pieces of shrpnel stuck in my leg and i had to spend a week in hospital because they were so badly imbedded into my leg
Meryl, I am somewhat confused as to how you justify saying these suicide bombs are “amongst the most evil weapons ever invented” immediately before quoting a source which defines these bombs as a “crude body-worn claymore mine.”
Nicholas, a claymore mine is used in warfare, buried in places where soldiers and armor are likely to roll over them.
A sucide bomb is worn on the body as a vest, and detonated in the midst of a crowd that almost always includes women, children, and old people. Palestinians add metal shrapnel to increase the destruction and death that the bomb will cause, and have been known to try to add rat poison to the mix because they think it will also cause more bleeding, and therefore more death.
A claymore mine is a weapon used by armies. A suicide bomb is used against civilians.
Are you getting why I said it is evil yet?
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I always find myself setback when I listen to two different views on this subject and how it always turns into a name-calling and stick-throwing contest.
I do not condone the actions of the Israeli nor the Pakistanis; I often try to make people understand there is a fine line between religion and politics. Politics have physical borders; while religion doesn’t and when we try to combine the two we have created a form of “oil and vinegarâ€; even though they are in the same bottle they can never become one unit. Our forefathers (yes I’m American) understood this and took steps to separate “Religion from State†in our Constitution.
We could spend our whole life arguing history about what was; who stole or bought what land from who or who acquired and how it was acquired. We would also have to argue over why the Roman Empire is now just a small piece of land called Italy, or maybe we could waist time talking about Napoleon, or the Christian Crusades, or how about those American Indians invaded by all those cruel Europeans.
Israel uses pre-empted strikes and revenge retaliations as does the Pakistanis and a lot of innocent people are harmed maimed and killed. How do any of us dare have the courage to call ourselves a “Civilized Race†when we can take sides or justify the killing of another human being.
Until people learn except “what isâ€; and move on to create a better future there will always be “Warâ€. I’m not saying to forget the past; there are lessons to be learned and remembered; not to be used to justify revenge, but to avoid repeating the mistake over and over again. The conflict between Israeli and Pakistanis is not a modern conflict, but has been going on for thousands of years.
A young inventor (Tomas Edison) was once asked how he felt about wasting his time after thousands of tries of creating a carbon filament for his light bulb; he simply replied “I didn’t waist my time; I learned thousands of ways of how “Not to do itâ€â€. When will we ever learn to follow his example?