Middle East Plastic, but Deadly Palestinian casualties surge

At the 75-bed Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in the Gaza Strip last week, wounded Palestinian protesters jammed the emergency room. After unsuccessful surgery, Abdulatif, 26, fingered the yellowing gauze wrapped around his left leg. Still lodged deep in his left thigh was a plastic bullet, Israel's latest ammunition against the ten-month-old intifadeh (uprising) by Palestinians in the occupied territories. Abdulatif pulled aside the bandage to reveal a reddish silver dollar-size hole in his flesh. Explained a nurse: "There is no difference between plastic and real bullets. They both enter the body and destroy."

Since Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin instructed his soldiers in...

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