If anyone is booby-trapping toys, it's the Palestinians themselves.
(INN) According to the latest Palestinian Authority libel against Israel, the IDF is distributing "booby-trapped toys" to Arab children. It was a take-off, said the Palestinian Media Watch organization, of an old libel, which claimed that the army was distributing "poison candies" to Arab children.
According to the PMW, the libels spread by the PA against Israel have their "seasons," and the latest "style" in libeling is the story of the booby-trapped toys. In several interviews on PA television in recent days, PA government officials have said that IDF soldiers have spread the toys in areas where they conducted patrols or exercises, apparently in the hope that children will pick them up and get blown up.
Speaking in an interview on PA TV several weeks ago that was monitored by PMW, the head of a local council in the Jordan Valley described some of the remains of explosives left by the IDF in his town after IDF exercises. "Some of these items look like pens, and some look like toys, while others are in shapes that are attractive to children. They are trying to get the children to play with them or pick them up. This is proof that the Israeli Army is setting as its goal the harming of children and young people."
There has been no uptick in recent weeks of reports from the PA of children injured by exploding toys or pens, Israeli officials said.
According to PMW, the latest libel is just a rehash of one that appeared between 2001 and 2003, which had the IDF “using planes to drop bombs and mines in shapes of items that are attractive to children, to get them to play with these items and blow themselves up,” numerous reports in PA media said at that time. Israeli television reported on the PA claims at the time as well.
One Gaza newspaper report discussed a PA medical official who gathered dozens of pieces of candy that were unwrapped. He was wearing rubber gloves, but as he gathered the candy, the report said, “he saw that the gloves were melting, and he had trouble breathing, felt dizzy, and had a terrible headache and stomachache.” The report did not say whether or not he “recovered.”
