OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

News.au: Banned weapon 'used in Gaza raid'

AN Arab Israeli politician has accused the Israeli military of using a "banned weapon" in a deadly raid in the Gaza Strip last month, as another deputy threatened to reveal confidential information on the attack.

Opposition MP Ahmad al-Tibi said the army had used a "secret banned weapon" in the raid and accused it of employing military censorship to stop the publication of details related to the issue.

"This concerns banned munitions whose explosion had an impact that extended over several dozen metres," he said.

Twelve Palestinians, including two wanted activists, were killed in the Israeli raid on October 20, which targeted a car in the Gaza Strip refugee camp of Nusseirat.

"Air Force commander Dan Halutz lied in public when he said after the raid that the Air Force used Hellfire missiles that were fired by Apache helicopters. It was not Apaches that launched the banned weapon," he charged.

Meanwhile fellow member of parliament Yossi Sarid, of the left-wing Meretz party, threatened to unveil "confidential information" over the Nusseirat raid.

Sarid made his threat after Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz refused to tell him the type weapons used in the raid, during a meeting of parliament's defence and foreign affairs committee, according to the Haaretz daily