HUMAN Rights Watch states that Israel’s widespread use of white phosphorus in southern Lebanon threatens civilians. Apart from being a big risk to life safety, these minerals also contribute to displacement.
Mohammad Hammud, in his 70s, was at home with his wife in Lebanon’s southern border village when the Israeli bombardment occurred. This time the attack was different. “The fire broke out in front of the house, there was a strange smell, we had difficulty breathing,” he said by telephone from his village, Hula, to TRT World, reported on Wednesday (9/10).
“We thought it was an ordinary bomb. But when the emergency response team arrived, they told us it was phosphorus and took us to hospital,” he said.
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The Israeli military and the powerful Hezbollah movement in Lebanon have exchanged fire almost every day since the unprecedented attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas on October 7 2023 against Israel. Lebanon accuses Israel of using white phosphorus in attacks that authorities say have harmed civilians and the environment.
Dangers of white phosphorus
White phosphorus is a substance that burns when exposed to oxygen and is used to create smoke screens and illuminate battlefields. However, ammunition can also be used as an incendiary weapon and cause fires, severe burns, respiratory damage, organ failure, and even death.
“Israel’s widespread use of white phosphorus in southern Lebanon placed civilians at grave risk and contributed to civilian displacement,” Human Rights Watch said in a report released Wednesday.
The human rights watchdog said it verified the use of white phosphorus munitions by Israeli forces in 17 southern Lebanese towns since October, including five illegally occupied towns in densely populated residential areas.
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The Israeli military said in October that its procedures require that white phosphorus bullets not be used in densely populated areas, with certain exceptions. “It complies with and exceeds the requirements of international law,” he said in a statement. He added that the army does not use such bullets for the purpose of targeting or setting things on fire.
Lebanon’s official National News Agency has repeatedly reported Israel’s phosphorus bombardment of southern Lebanon, including in recent days sometimes even causing fires. The agency said phosphorus shells fell among residents’ houses in Hula on January 28 after enemy artillery targeted the village.
Hammud said he and his wife, in her 60s, were hospitalized near Mais al-Jabal after the attack that day. They received treatment including oxygen.
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The hospital said that four civilians, two of them women, were being treated in intensive care due to lack of oxygen in the body and severe shortness of breath due to white phosphorus, including a man in his 70s and a woman in her 60s.
Lebanon’s Ministry of Health has recorded 173 people suffering from chemical exposure to white phosphorus since October. However, these figures do not differentiate between combatants and civilians.
Doctors at three other hospitals in southern Lebanon said they had treated people experiencing respiratory symptoms due to exposure to white phosphorus.
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Brian Castner, a weapons investigator for Amnesty International’s crisis team, said the use of white phosphorus in areas inhabited by civilians could constitute an indiscriminate attack and a violation of international humanitarian law. “If civilians are injured or killed, it could be a war crime,” he said.
Peacekeepers from the UN Interim Force in Lebanon also detected white phosphorus inside their premises.
Cross-border hostilities have killed more than 450 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters but also including 88 civilians. Israel said 14 soldiers and 11 civilians were killed on its side of the border.
Amnesty International last year said it had evidence of Israel’s unlawful use of white phosphorus in southern Lebanon between October 10 and 16 last year. “The attack on 16 October on the village of Dhayra should be investigated as a war crime because the indiscriminate attack injured at least nine civilians,” Amnesty said at the time.
The White House expressed concern over reports that Israel used US-supplied white phosphorus in attacks in Lebanon. Beirut complained to the UN that Israel’s use of white phosphorus endangered the lives of a large number of innocent civilians and caused widespread environmental degradation, due to Israel’s practice of burning forest areas in Lebanon.
The use of white phosphorus has also raised concerns among South Lebanese farmers who have seen their agricultural land burned and some of whom are worried about potential contamination of soil and crops.
Tamara Elzein, secretary general of Lebanon’s National Council for Scientific Research, noted there is little literature on white phosphorus bombing’s impact on land. The organization plans extensive scientific sampling to assess any contamination, but is waiting for a ceasefire to send its team in and carry out the assessment.
Antoine Kallab, associate director of the Center for Nature Conservation at the American University of Beirut, said the lack of data was causing panic and some farmers were scrambling to get tested. “It is important that we carry out measurements as soon as possible to understand whether shooting white phosphorus poses a general risk to public health, food security and the ecosystem itself,” he concluded. (TRT World/Z-2)
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