Israel's nuclear reactor 'cripples' Palestinians

Occupied Jerusalem: A radioactive leak and wastes dumped from a 40-year-old Israeli nuclear reactor have crippled the lives of generations of Palestinians in the vicinity, doctors and scientists said, linking the Dimona nuclear facility to increasing cases of leukaemia, deformed births and infertility in Hebron and the Sinai peninsula.

"This phenomenon started in 1986 when villagers in southern Hebron began to notice widespread diseases without knowing the cause," Dr Mahmoud Sa'adeh, the founder of Palestinian Medical Relief Society, told Gulf News.

"After Dimona technician Mordechai Vanunu revealed that there was a radioactive leak in southern Israel, we began to relate the radiations to the cancer cases. The affected towns are 25km from Dimona," he said.

More than 200 cases of cancer have been reported in Hebron over the years, while infertility among married couples stands at an alarming 65 per cent, Dr Sa'adeh said. "Eight women in one Hebron neighbourhood miscarried on a single day," he said.

"Studies in the southern parts of Hebron showed a high level of radioactivity - approximately twice over the normal range," Dr Khalil Thabayneh, a Palestinian nuclear physicist, said.