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HRW Confirms: Israel is Using White Phosphorus in Gaza (www.palestinechronicle.com)

submitted 11 months ago by tree@lemmy.zip to c/worldnews@lemmy.ml

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Human Rights Watch confirmed that Israel is using white phosphorus in its military aggression on Gaza and Lebanon.

In a question-and-answer document released on Thursday, the group said that it “verified videos taken in Lebanon and Gaza on October 10 and 11, 2023, respectively, showing multiple airbursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over the Gaza City port and two rural locations along the Israel-Lebanon border”.

White phosphorus, according to HRW, “has the potential to cause civilian harm due to the severe burns it causes and its lingering long-term effects on survivors.”

“Its use in densely populated areas of Gaza violates the requirement under international humanitarian law that parties to the conflict take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian injury and loss of life”.

White phosphorus “causes severe burns, often down to the bone, that are slow to heal and likely to develop infections,” the report reads.

This is not the first time Israel has used white phosphorus in a war against the besieged Gaza Strip.

archive: https://archive.ph/aJhmK#selection-1209.0-1215.101

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[-] zerfuffle@lemmy.ml 60 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Yes, using WP in general is not a war crime, but that's because it's usually used for illumination in large open fields, not in densely-populated urban centers.

Using WP over Gaza is. There is no way to avoid civilian casualties when using WP over Gaza because of how densely populated it is. There is no way to know who will suffer, how many, or for how long. All we know is that they definitely won't get the medical treatment they need because Netanyahu's government has been preventing humanitarian aid from coming in, prevented them from having access to food or clean water, and shut down their access to electricity.

[-] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 43 points 11 months ago

It's not the Geneva checklist. Also the only legitimate use for WP is illumination or smokescreen and I guaranfuckingtee Israel doesn't need either for actions against a city.

[-] zerfuffle@lemmy.ml 15 points 11 months ago

They need it for illumination because they cut all power to the city /s

[-] kbotc@lemmy.world 10 points 11 months ago

So far it’s been used over the water (illumination of ships) and near the Lebanon border as a smokescreen. It’s literally in the linked article.

[-] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago

Israel’s military said on Friday that it was “currently not aware of the use of weapons containing white phosphorus in Gaza”.

If the uses are legal (unlike in 2009), why are they denying using WP (like in 2009)?

[-] Blackmist@feddit.uk 9 points 11 months ago

Also don't know why they'd need to use it as a weapon when they've also shown they're happy to just drop fucking massive bombs on them... Why beat about the bush with WP?