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Rubhiya Abd al-Rahman Darwish, 75, was taken to the hospital after
Israeli forces fired Skunk water with a cannon into her home
(MaanImages/Alex Shams)
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By Alex Shams
BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Rubhiya Abd al-Rahman Darwish was taking a nap on the couch of her family home on Sunday when she was awoken with a start by the sound of shattering glass.
"I saw a burst of water breaking through the window, when suddenly an intense odor hit and I passed out from the smell, so they had to take me to the hospital," the 75-year-old woman told Ma'an during an interview in her small apartment in Bethlehem's Aida refugee camp.
Although she is used to Israeli soldiers throwing tear gas canisters into the alleyway beside her home, Darwish was surprised to find that this time they had come with a cannon to hose down the sides of local homes with putrid-smelling water.
"I went to the hospital and they gave me a shot, but the poison started coming out of my mouth and nose. I started screaming because my back was hurting, and it hasn't stopped," the elderly woman, who said she suffers from diabetes, hypertension, and a heart condition, told Ma'an.
"All my clothes were ruined, and we had to throw all the quilts and mattress out," she said.
"Why do they do this to us?"
Locals say that the daytime attack on their homes was completely unprovoked and unexpected, and many expressed shock at the fact that Israeli forces had covered the camp in a layer of an unknown, repulsive substance.
Known as "Skunk," the Israeli military has been using the chemical since at least 2008 as a form of non-lethal crowd control. Palestinians, however, simply call the liquid "shit," after the smell that can stay for weeks on clothes, body, walls, and furniture.
An Israeli military spokesperson contacted by Ma'an did not return a request for comment on Skunk's chemical makeup, or on the purpose of the raid. However, Israeli human rights watchdog B'Tselem says that the military has in the past said that the substance is organic, although it has not divulged its ingredients.
A B'Tselem report on Skunk also confirmed the recurrent usage of the substance -- which causes nausea and vomiting, especially among children and the elderly -- against Palestinian homes, "raising suspicions that the Skunk is being used punitively against villages where regular weekly demonstrations are held."
Near the camp, on what used to be the main Hebron-Jerusalem road but is now cut off by the Israeli separation wall, a large water cannon was even installed earlier this year beside a military tower to spray the water at locals, highlighting how quickly Skunk has been integrated into the Israeli army's arsenal.
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