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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.
read more: https://www.palestinechronicle.com/hrw-confirms-israel-is-using-white-phosphorus-in-gaza/
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.
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.
If the uses are legal (unlike in 2009), why are they denying using WP (like in 2009)?
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?
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Firstly, they have thermals and night optics so they absolutely don’t need to illuminate anything. Even if they did, they can use parachute flares. WP in an area as densely populated as Gaza can never be anything BUT a war crime.
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WP ends up on the ground. It would be absolutely terrible for illuminating a whole city at once. Flares are better because they stay in the air.
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Chemical warfare is fucking great when you intend to move in after - traditional bombs are too messy and destroy too much property.
The logic is similar to Dead Kennedys’ take on the neutron bomb in their aptly named song Kill the Poor:
By legitimate I meant legal. WP is absolutely great for a number of other things that are supposedly frowned upon in modern combat.
Yes, your message was clear - there’s no mistaking you for claiming Israel’s use of it is legitimate.
I remember thinking once this war broke our that I bet they wish they could use chemical weapons, and it seems they’ve found a workaround.
They will probably need it for illumination when the ground war starts but they definitely don’t need it during air raids.
If we’re talking actual air raids as in bombing runs, then yeah, it’s still useful for illuminating your target. Less so for rocket and artillery attacks.