An analysis of shell fragments shows Israel used U.S.-made white phosphorus munitions in an attack that a rights group says should be investigated as a war crime.
This is an excuse about as flimsy as they come - yeah, I drove my van full of fertiliser to the mosque, and it happened to catch fire, explode and level three blocks around the mosque, but I’m allowed fertiliser.
On Dec. 27, 2008, Israel launched a 22-day military operation on the Gaza Strip in response to rockets fired from the enclave. In the final days of that operation, Israel was accused of using white phosphorus weapons in proximity to civilian centers, including the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and a nearby hospital.
At first, Israel denied its use. In a scathing 74-page report issued in 2009, HRW disputed these denials. As reported by The Guardian in January 2009, Israel later admitted WP could, in fact, have been improperly used:
Israel has admitted – after mounting pressure – that its troops may have used white phosphorus shells in contravention of international law, during its three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip.
One of the places most seriously affected by the use of white phosphorus was the main UN compound in Gaza City, which was hit by three shells on 15 January. The same munition was used in a strike on the al-Quds hospital in Gaza City the same day.
Under review by Colonel Shai Alkalai is the use of white phosphorus by a reserve paratroop brigade in northern Israel. According to army sources the brigade fired up to 20 phosphorus shells in a heavily built-up area around the Gaza township of Beit Lahiya, one of the worst hit areas of Gaza.
In that 2009 case, as HRW documented, American-made WP shells fired from 155mm-caliber Howitzer guns burst in the air above their target, splintering, by design, into 116 solid shards of burning, white phosphorus that brought both smoke and flame to the ground below:
As Middle East Eye reported shortly after images of explosions were posted in 2023, “sources on the ground reported seeing scenes consistent with past Israeli white phosphorus use in Gaza, including during the 2008 conflict.” Indeed, a comparison of the air-blast explosions involved in the 2008-09 offensive and in October 2023 show what appear to be remarkably similar effects
Basically we did it in violation of international law (warcrime), but it wasn’t a breach of international law, and we didn’t do it, but we did do it, and promised we wouldn’t do it again because… and we didn’t do it again, except we definitely did.
Standard Israeli credibility, and definite not warcrimes.
So the relevance to this article, I take it, is that you suspect this attack was not a use of white phosphorous for smoke or signalling, because in the past, when having been accused of using white phosphorous in a city, the IDF initially denied it but then admitted it may have been used improperly, and you are therefore skeptical of their good faith this time around?
Perfectly reasonable.
Does not justify labelling this a definite war crime which is what you and Amnesty have done.
Israel has a history of doing exactly what we’re talking about, lying about it, and promising not to do it again, before repeating the cycle.
I suspect this in the same way that I suspected Russian’s “border-adjacent exercises” then “special military operation” were a*similarly thinly veiled excuse for an invasion - it’s very clear what’s happening from a clear pattern of behaviour that spans decades.
I may be more charitable if Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian population wasn’t indiscriminately hostile and deadly, and their rhetoric so genocidal. They’re also committing war crimes by cutting off food water, power, trade and movement - Palestinians are now being starved to death.
Israel is doing what they’ve said they want to, she have done in the past - I don’t understand why you’d even try to defend this.
This is an excuse about as flimsy as they come - yeah, I drove my van full of fertiliser to the mosque, and it happened to catch fire, explode and level three blocks around the mosque, but I’m allowed fertiliser.
https://www.snopes.com/news/2023/10/13/idf-white-phosphorus-oct-2023/
Basically we did it in violation of international law (warcrime), but it wasn’t a breach of international law, and we didn’t do it, but we did do it, and promised we wouldn’t do it again because… and we didn’t do it again, except we definitely did.
Standard Israeli credibility, and definite not warcrimes.
So the relevance to this article, I take it, is that you suspect this attack was not a use of white phosphorous for smoke or signalling, because in the past, when having been accused of using white phosphorous in a city, the IDF initially denied it but then admitted it may have been used improperly, and you are therefore skeptical of their good faith this time around?
Perfectly reasonable.
Does not justify labelling this a definite war crime which is what you and Amnesty have done.
Israel has a history of doing exactly what we’re talking about, lying about it, and promising not to do it again, before repeating the cycle.
I suspect this in the same way that I suspected Russian’s “border-adjacent exercises” then “special military operation” were a*similarly thinly veiled excuse for an invasion - it’s very clear what’s happening from a clear pattern of behaviour that spans decades.
I may be more charitable if Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian population wasn’t indiscriminately hostile and deadly, and their rhetoric so genocidal. They’re also committing war crimes by cutting off food water, power, trade and movement - Palestinians are now being starved to death.
Israel is doing what they’ve said they want to, she have done in the past - I don’t understand why you’d even try to defend this.