From the Liveblog of
Sunday, July 9, 2023
Doctors ask police to stop using water cannons after protesters injured
Renee Ghert-Zand is the health reporter and a feature writer for The Times of Israel.
The Israel Association of Public Health Physicians and the Israel Society of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery send a letter to Israel Police chief Kobi Shabtai asking that officers suspend their deployment of water cannons, at least until their injurious use against protesters on July 5 are investigated.
The letter characterizes water cannons as “weapons” that cause “exceptional and serious” damage by spraying water at high pressure.
“Water cannons can spray 20 liters per second to a distance of 70 meters. This amounts to pressure of five to 10 bars or even higher. This kind of pressure can lead to a body being damaged directly, or as the result of being knocked against a wall or the ground, or by flying debris,” the letter says.
“There is a high risk of injury from a direct hit to the face by a water cannon. These include serious and irreversible injuries to the eye and eye socket, including blindness,” it continues.
The letter follows the injury of 14 protesters, who were brought to Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital on July 5 after Israelis took to the streets following Tel Aviv police chief Amichai Eshed’s resignation, which he characterized as a removal for refusing to use undue force against protesters.
Six of the anti-overhaul protesters sustained eye and skull injuries due to police use of water cannons.
Among those injured was Udi Ori, a colonel in the Israeli Air Force. He required eye surgery after taking a direct hit from a water cannon during the protest, and has said that he will no longer volunteer for reserve duty, vowing not to serve under a “dictatorship.”
The physicians claim that the police violated their own regulations against the use of water cannons less than 20 meters from people or directed at people’s heads.
These regulations also prohibit the use of water cannons in a way that could cause individuals to be thrown against a wall or fall from heights. The machines may also not be used near the elderly, children, and pregnant women.
