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| White Phosphorus? Israel denies using harmful white phosphorus munitions in its explosions, such as the one shown above, on
Jan. 3 in Gaza. Yannis Behrakis/Reuters |
Gaza: Israel under fire for alleged white phosphorus use
On Tuesday, the Israeli army denied using white phosphorus munitions. A Norwegian doctor claims Israel is using Gaza as a 'test laboratory for new weapons,' including Dense Inert Metal Explosives, or DIME.
from the January 14, 2009 edition
Page 3 of 3
In August 1997, five Israeli soldiers burned to death during a battle with Lebanese guerrillas when they were trapped in a frontline valley by a brush fire ignited by phosphorous rounds fired by their own artillery.
HRW reported in 1996 that phosphorous shells fired by Israel had struck populated areas, causing civilian casualties, during a week-long Israeli air and artillery blitz in South Lebanon in July 1993. At the time of the 1993 attack, Maj. Gen. Herzl Bodinger, commander of the Israeli Air Force, was quoted by Israel's Yedioth Ahranot as saying: "We do not use such bombs."
But in 1994, the US State Department reported that there were "credible accounts of IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] use of phosphorous shells against military and civilians targets" in South Lebanon.
Other controversial armaments used by Israel in Lebanon included antipersonnel "flechette" rounds fired by tanks. The round is designed to explode in the air, showering the target with 5,000 three-centimeter-long steel darts in a cone-shaped trajectory some 900 feet long.
The United Nations recorded many instances of "flechette" rounds being used in South Lebanon in the 1990s in which civilians were killed or wounded.
Last year, Fadel Shanaa, a Reuters cameraman, was killed in Gaza by a "flechette" round fired by an Israeli tank that Mr. Shanaa was filming at the time.
Whether Israel is using white phosphorus illegally or not in its latest war against Islamist militants in Gaza, the issue may be gaining too much focus, says Garlasco from HRW, and could be "a red herring."
Sara Roy, a senior research scholar at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, agrees.
"While it is important to pay attention to these weapons, the majority of Gazans are being killed by typical military operations. I am a scholar and I use words carefully, and this seems like a massacre."
• Joshua Mitnick contributed reporting from Tel Aviv.
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