Over 3,000 Tons of Bombs Fell on Gaza During 2008-2009 Onslaught

A Palestinian police officer says "Israeli" army dropped more than 3,000 tons of munitions containing incendiary materials on the Gaza Strip during its three-week onslaught against the besieged enclave.

Director of the police explosives engineering department in Gaza, Major Tahseen Saad, said on Tuesday that during the Gaza war Tel Aviv tested most of the munitions it had stored in its arsenals, the Palestinian Information Center reported.

He added that bombs and shells of different size and weight were employed to target civilians and vehicles. The missiles contained internationally-banned substances such as white phosphorus, tungsten and depleted uranium which can increase rates of cancer and birth defects.

More than 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the three week Israeli land, sea and air offensive in the impoverished coastal sliver. The offensive also inflicted $ 1.6 billion damage on the Gazan economy.

A United Nations inquiry led by the former South African Judge Richard Goldstone detailed what investigators called "Israeli" actions "amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity," during "Israel's" offensive against the Gaza Strip.

The probe also found that "Israel" had violated international humanitarian law in several ways, the most hawkish of these was that Palestinians were used as human shields and forced to walk ahead of "Israeli" soldiers searching civilian neighborhoods.