Evidence Grows That Israel is Using White Phosphorus in Gaza

For several days, charges that Israel has been using white phosphorus in its Gaza bombing have spread, unconfirmed but gaining some credibility as some human rights groups have weighed in. But today the charges are reaching critical mass in the wake of the bombing of the main United Nations compound in Gaza City.

This just in from Reuters:

A warehouse in a U.N. compound in Gaza that came under Israeli fire on Thursday was apparently hit by white-phosphorus shells, U.N. humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes said. "The main warehouse was badly damaged by what appeared to be white-phosphorus shells," Holmes told reporters at a news briefing in New York. "Those on the ground don't have any doubt that's what they were. If you were looking for confirmation, that looks like it to me."

And update from BBC:

Human Rights Watch says it has observed "dozens and dozens" of white phosphorus shells being fired by Israel at the Gaza Strip - a heavily populated civilian area where its use is prohibited.

Palestinian medical officials said they had treated large numbers of casualties with unusual burns that were extremely painful to treat and could be consistent with exposure to white phosphorus (WP).

The Times of London reported earlier today:

The Israeli military has denied using white phosphorus shells in the Gaza offensive, although an investigation by The Times has revealed that dozens of Palestinians in Gaza have sustained serious injuries from the substance, which burns at extremely high temperatures. The Geneva Convention of 1980 proscribes the use of white phosphorus as a weapon of war in civilian areas, although it can be used to create a smokescreen. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said today that all weapons used in Gaza were "within the scope of international law."

In fact, the International Red Cross has stated that Israel is certainly using it and Israel's response was a non-denial, a spokesman explaining that the military "wishes to reiterate that it uses weapons in compliance with international law, while strictly observing that they be used in accordance with the type of combat and its characteristics." Foreign press cannot get to bottom of it due to Israel refusing journalists' entry to Gaza.

The use of white phosphorus as an illuminating device only is okayed by international law but such use is extremely risky and banned for use in dense civilian areas. The fires it sets cannot be put out with the usual water or fire extinguishers.

Today, at least two United Nations officials have flatly declared that three or more white phosphorous shells were part of the attack today that set a UN building and compound ablaze in Gaza City. Here is just one of many press reports, just posted by The New York Times:

A spokesman for the Relief and Works Agency, Christopher Gunness, said that the Israelis had been provided with the GPS coordinates of all United Nations facilities in Gaza. He said that two buildings were ablaze and that there were five fully laden fuel vehicles at the site....

In the attack on Thursday, Mr. Gunness said, the Israelis used phosphorous shells, according to Bloomberg. "The Israelis have shot three phosphorus shells against the compound, where hundreds of civilians are being sheltered," he was quoted as saying.

Earlier this week The New York Times reported on growing civilian charges of white phosphorus use:

Luay Suboh, 10, from Beit Lahiya, lost his eyesight and some skin on his face Saturday when, his mother said, a fiery substance clung to him as he darted home from a shelter where his family was staying to pick up clothes. The substance smelled like burned trash, said Ms. Jaawanah, the mother who fled her home in Zeitoun, who had experienced it too. She had no affection for Hamas, but her sufferings were changing that. 'Do you think I'm against them firing rockets now?' she asked, referring to Hamas. 'No. I was against it before. Not anymore.'

Also this week, AFP reported:

Medics in Gaza say they have treated more than 50 people suffering burns caused by controversial white phosphorus shells, a claim backed up by a report of the New York-based Human Rights Watch. And two Norwegian doctors, recently returned from working in the Gaza Strip, accused Israel of using the territory as a testing ground for a new "extremely nasty" type of explosive.

Then there is today's report by The Times of London from correspondent Sheera Franklin in Jerusalem:

Remnants of an Israeli white phosphorus shell, identified by the marking on the outer casing -- M825A1 -- have been found in the village of Sheikh Ajilin in western Gaza. Witnesses in Gaza said that the shell was fired on January 9 and was taken indoors as evidence. They recalled seeing thick smoke and smelling a strong odour in keeping with the garlic-like smell associated with white phosphorus.

Hebrew writing on the shell casing reads "exploding smoke" -- the term the Israeli army uses for white phosphorus. Doctors who examined the shell said that it appeared to include phosphorus residue. Residents said that they suffered burns on their feet when they walked where the shelling had taken place.

Greg Mitchell's new book on the 2008 campaign, "Why Obama Won," will be published next week. His current book on Iraq and the Media is "So Wrong for So Long."

Comments

[arvay]

The UN general Assembly, of course, is hostage to the US' reflexive veto of any measures aimed at Israel's many crimes.

But the General Assembly has an opportunity to do something substantial: a resolution that condemns Israel and re-instates the Zionism = Racism measure, updated with the evidence that's been accumulating in all the intervening years. "The Wall," more settlements, the bombing of Lebanon, the latest Gaza murders, all of thee are aspects of ethnic cleansing aimed at a particular ethnic group.

Maybe like fascist Italy, Israel will withdraw from the UN.

As an outlaw nation, it doesn't belong there.

[pburman505]

Follow the money: http://www.forbes.com/opinions/2009/01/16/gaza-hamas-funding-oped-cx_re_0116ehrenfeld.html

The UN is not an unbiased party. The UN funds Hamas, knowing that its money supports terrorism.

[zeebruce]

Duh - the moment I heard that a UN warehouse with food and medicine was burning out of control it was obvious that this required the use of a phosphorous bomb and not a conventional explosive. Only a phosphorous bomb, lovingly supplied by the USA, will incinerate bags of grain and similar "non-flammable" items stored in a warehouse. The use of the phosphorous bombs shows that it was clearly the intent of the Israeli military to destroy the food and medicine in the warehouse and therefore that they knew it was a UN relief center when they bombed it. Just one more in a very long list of Israeli and USA war crimes committed in the Middle East.

[Michale32086]

@lysistrata

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Michale,

Where do you hide in a cage? Do you have any concept of people living in one of the most densely populated areas in the world, in high rise buildings, not in the suburbs? Can you imagine that, have you ever been in a city with more than a million people? Where could they hide and where could they flee to when they are fenced in?
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I have already proven that Gaza is not that densely populated that HAMAS could not find open areas to place their weapons in...

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And why are the quasams wrong and the artillery shells, 2000 pound bombs, WP and what else are right?
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Because HAMAS is targeting civilian areas with their missiles and not legitimate military targets...

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Collateral damage from quasams is just the same collateral as from Israeli bombs, just a lot less. The Palestinians have a right to self defense, since they have no army they do the best they can.
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Except that, with HAMAS, it is NOT "collateral damage".. HAMAS is AIMING for innocent civilians.

Why is this concept so difficult to understand??

Michale......

[terry52]

yes michale and isreali army is killing innocent civilians and deliberately tageting women, there is vido footage out showing isreali soildiers killing a palestinean women fleeing for her life...to compare hamas to a big army like isreal is like comparing new york city to russia

[AdamX]

http://soc.world-journal.net/harabr.html

[GatoPreto]

Q: Is using a Chemical Weapon on civilians a War Crime?
A: Yes. See Geneva Conventions. For starters.

Q: Is White Phosphorous a Chemical Weapon?
A: Yes, according to most countries and the US.

US intelligence assessment have characterised WP after the first Gulf War as a "chemical weapon".

The assessment was published in a declassified report on the American Department of Defence website. The file was headed: "Possible use of phosphorous chemical weapons by Iraq in Kurdish areas along the Iraqi-Turk­ish-Irania­n borders."

Source: The Independent.

[Michale32086]

Using WillyPete as a tactical smoke screen or as illumination is in perfect accordance with International Law.

These are the facts...

Michale......

[LillianB]

It's not used as illumination when used in daylight. As smoke screen - you can say it is possible. But using it in a crowded civilian area is still forbidden as it is defined as a chemical weapon. You may monopolize the debate by spamming it, but you do not have a monopoly on the truth. Nor are your "facts" as clear as you like to pretend they are. You're pretty much putting forward a smoke screen yourself.

As for people worth taking seriously: Several UN representatives, among them, John Ging, the UNWRA head in Gaza, are now calling for an investigation whether Israel has committed war crimes. Israel has "promised" that their own investigation is underway. That's not good enough - it has to be done on a higher, international level. No government can be trusted to investigate crimes during an offensive they've ordered themselves.

[xxnounxx]

WAR CRIMES SIMPLE AS THAT,THE OPPRESSED BECOME OPPRESSORS AND THE IDF'ARE THE OPPRESSORS
http://karmalised.com/?p=6039&cpage=1

[terry52]

People need to contact their congressmen and vote those idiots out if they do not investigate what is actually going on there,. there needs to be a independant group going in to see if this chemical has been used and also to see if there is genocide. I think isreal should be prosceuted for war crimes,.

[lysistrata]

Michale,

Where do you hide in a cage? Do you have any concept of people living in one of the most densely populated areas in the world, in high rise buildings, not in the suburbs? Can you imagine that, have you ever been in a city with more than a million people? Where could they hide and where could they flee to when they are fenced in?

And why are the quasams wrong and the artillery shells, 2000 pound bombs, WP and what else are right?

Collateral damage from quasams is just the same collateral as from Israeli bombs, just a lot less. The Palestinians have a right to self defense, since they have no army they do the best they can.

[LillianB]

During the two days since Greg Mitchell posted this entry, evidence have grown even stronger. The following has quotes from doctors in Gaza, Human Rights Watch representatives in Gaza, plus a video (warning: strong content) showing damages from White Phosphorus.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/16/phosphorus-bombs-video-israel-gaza

[Tom Joad]

"The use of white phosphorus as an illuminating device only is okayed by international law but such use is extremely risky and banned for use in dense civilian areas."

one does not need an illuminating device in broad daylight.

w@r cr1me.

[RogHol]

This is smoke screens used to obscure Israeli troop movements and it's not used against tne civlian population intentionally as far as I understand.
HAMAS choose to fight in densely populated arreas. They are primarily responsible for any civilian causalties in this regard.
The type of munition used as smoke screens by the Israelis is not supposed to be particularly dangerous. If it is, where its the proof? There is a lot of rumors and deceptive reporting circulating here I believe.

[terry52]

I swear those people here are trying to legitimize isreals right to use chemicals on palestineans, why because they think of them as sub-human.and as long as they believe that it will excuse everything isreal is doing in gaza and other parts of palestine.


SHAME ON YOU

[laserbob]

The whole area of Gaza is one contiguous densely populated area! Take a look
at Google Earth and use the measuring tool. 1.5+ Million people crammed into
an area roughly 25 miles long and 8 miles wide at most! There are no deserts
or mountains for Hamas to operate from. And yes, it's horrible and there's no
excuse for Hamas to be targeting civilians in Israel, but the same goes for
the killing of innocents in Gaza. These children did not vote for Hamas, they
are just trying to survive like any other frightened child. As for the use of
Phosphorus as a smoke agent, there are many, many less dangerous and
more efficient smoke agents for use in crowded areas. These methods of
terrorizing civilians comes as no surprise from the same military that would
do low level supersonic flight runs over civilians in the middle of the night for
weeks on end, causing miss-carriages and other illnesses, both physical
and mental among the population. These methods are nothing less than
terrorism in the eye's of the rest of the world, and to any sane, and reasonable
human. Israel has always been a friend of the US and the West, but they are
quickly wasting away whatever good will they have left. I know they have with
this life long supporter and friend of Jews and Israel!

lb.

[Rog49Thomas]

Assuming the charge is true (for argument's sake), if there is no practical sanction then it matters little.

Based on history, that is likely to be the case.

[Jezreel]

Thank you Greg Mitchell for providing updated and aggregated sources of information on this topic. Like many Americans and millions of my fellow citizens of the global community I am appalled by Israel's ongoing atrocities against the Palestinian people. Your reporting, like so many others around the globe is helping to keep a klieg light of interest and the force of activism on this issue.

[Michale32086]

@pjones006

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I can't say I saw every square inch but the video clips I saw showed things like bags of grain and such on fire. I didn't see signs of what could be considered secondary explosions which I would have expected much more devastation from past examples. The first thing I heard that happened when I was on CNN yesterday was the IDF spokesperson saying it was a mistake but that they were being fired upon and it was coming from near the warehouse. It would seem that hamas was firing at them from a location nearby and a IDF missile went off target and hit the warehouse.
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If that's the case, then I agree that it was a tragic mistake.

My point is that people use incidents like this to condemn Israel and paint the entire campaign as wrong, illegal, genocide, etc etc etc.

And THAT is what I have a problem with...

Michale......

[pjones006]

I tend to travel down the middle. I don't buy into the conspiracy theories about genocide or trying to get the natural gas that is offshore or any of that. But I also don't buy into some he feel that whatever they want to do they are justified. Then again I may be wrong, Israel may want to commit gen0cide and build a pipeline across Gaza without anyone getting in the way and turn the rest of Gaza into a resort, who knows.

[terry52]

I just wonder how much true info you have Michale, or maybe you are just another propaganda machine trying to promote palestineans all as terrorists and isrealis as saints and don't forget gods chosen people, will if god allows people to burn people with chemicals then he is not my god.

[altohone]

Is it a coincidence that those who defended torture and wiretapping by Bush are also defending this?


Right wingers defend right wing policies.

That the currently dominating political ideology is so similar to the one that dominated genocidal Germany is a bit scary. Those involved don't seem to see it.

[Michale32086]

One problem with your theory..

President Obama supports Israel and "this"...

Pooof......

There goes your theory...

Michale.....

[Tom Joad]

there is no evidence to suggest Mr. Obama supports attacking civilians with white phosphorus.

[altohone]

Um, reading comprehension check.

Who are you responding to, because it wasn't my comment?

[jeanrenoir]

Obama "supports" Israel by sending Mitchell to work out an even-handed, truly just solution, the exact antithesis of the insanely and blindly arrogant neocon AIPAC approach of the Bush years. This is support we, the Israelis and American Jews of good will, and the Palestinians can believe in. Several recent books by Clinton insiders have pointed out how the Clinton pursuit of peace in the Middle East was severely compromised by Clinton's obvious reluctance (obviously because of wealthy Jewish financial backers) to put appropriate pressure on Israel. Obama, Hillary, and Mitchell--since Obama, with his unexampled charisma and ability to raise money from small donors, has nothing to fear from the loss of Jewish donors--now have all read these books, have talked to these experts, and can move freely to pursue peace with just fairness to all, for the first time since Camp David.

[Michale32086]

@pjones006

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The point I suppose, at least for me, is they had the gps coordinates so why was the warehouse burning out of control. I mean I saw it so were they using WP to cloak the warehouse?
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Given HAMAS' track record on using UN buildings for their activities, I would guess that it was due to the secondary explosions of the munitions cooking off..

Do you have any experience with WillyPete that would allow you to distinguish between WP smoke and smoke from a raging fire??

Michale.....

[Michale32086]

I don't mean this to sound facetious or sarcastic.. It's a sincere question.

It harkens back to my point about how eyewitness testimony is the worse kind of evidence their is..

ESPECIALLY in a war zone..

Michale.....

[lysistrata]

Well the worst kind of evidence is no evidence at all. Israel can't show any evidence and they only kill by mistake, they never mean it.

They use white phosphor, cluster bombs and tons of bombs all by mistake, give me a break.

They destroyed a UN position in Lebanon before, just an honest mistake too, even when they had the co-ordinates given to them by the UN.

All nothing but collateral damage, that is why they don't allow journalists in to Gaza.

[terry52]

yea michale especially in a war zone were isreal won't let international reporters in there to see what is going on...What does Isreal have to hide...uhhhhhhh

[pjones006]

I could care less if it was caused by WP or not. That specific thread was regarding the legality of it being used as a weapon. You stated as a smoke screen it was perfectly ok and the response was sarcastically about cloaking the warehouse. I went along with that premise and make no claims of being an expert nor will I make any assumptions of it being a secondary explosion. Since the IDF did say it was a grave mistake I will assume though that it was from an IDF missile which shouldn't happen since they had the GPS coordinates.

[Michale32086]

@pjones006

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No one here is going to defend hamas.
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You must be new around here.

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But if merely count numbers the Palestinians are dying at a very high rate compared to Israel citizens which doesn't make it right but lets have a dose of reality here.
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Fine.. The reality is that HAMAS uses innocent civilians as Human Shields and places their weaponry within crowded urban areas. THAT is why there is such a large amount of civilian casualties. The fact that there aren't thousands more is a testament to the restraint shown by Israel.

It's rather ironic that Israel and the IDF care more for innocent Palestinians than HAMAS does.

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If the WP is a smokescreen it should then be very easy to dispute.
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And yet, there is NO definitive evidence to show that WP incendiaries are in use...

Michale.....

[pjones006]

"You must be new around here."

No, you can easily check my profile and have seen no one supporting hamas.

"The fact that there aren't thousands more is a testament to the restraint shown by Israel."

I agree with everything you say about hamas but when locations are bombed that have been give GPS coordinates and the IDF comes out and says "grave mistake" and over 350 children are already dead......

"And yet, there is NO definitive evidence to show that WP incendiaries are in use."

I have seen some things posted but I haven't looked into it myself, whether they're used or not isn't my pet peeve on this issue.

[pjones006]

First post failed I guess.

1) Not new , see profile, haven't seen anyone support hamas here.
2) Don't care about hamas but when sites are hit that have been given GPS coordinates and IDF says "grave mistake" and 350 children are de@d...............
3) Whether WP are being used isn't my main point of contention so I haven't spent any time checking myself, just noticed that the question wasn't whether it was being used but how. If it was used as a smoke screen why was the warehouse holding relief food supplies burning so brightly.

[Michale32086]

Fair enough.. My apologies for the overt sarcasm....

Yes, the IDF was given GPS co-ordinates for the buildings.

But HAMAS has a track record for using UN buildings and there were reports of firing coming from the buildings in question..

If mistakes were made, this should come out and appropriate punishments be handed out...

But, let's be honest and call it what it is. A mistake.. It happens..

Michale...

Michale.....