White Phosphorus Used Against Gazan Civilians By Israeli Military
Bill Lindner
January 23, 2009
Clouds of choking smoke, explosions reminiscent of a fireworks display, bombs bursting into all-consuming flames that cannot be extinguished with water, suffocating gas and harsh burns on the skin of extraordinarily maimed live and dead bodies were caused by the bombs Israel dropped on the inhabitants of the Gaza strip according to reports and testimonies from there.
Hospitals in Gaza are full of people --- many of them children --- whose injuries and burns are so severe that they have appalled the medical teams in the hospitals. After its three-week assault on Gaza, the Israeli military withdrew its last soldiers from the Gaza Strip a day after President Obama was inaugurated.
Marc Garlasco, a senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch (HRW) went to Israel with a mission: to examine whether the weapons that both sides are using are themselves legal and whether the use of them is legal.
At the time the Haaretz article was published, Garlasco had yet to be permitted to enter Gaza --- as has been the case with many other people from other human rights organizations and journalists as well as medical teams and food supplies --- so he hasn't been able to examine the actual remnants of the explosives. He can only guess or make assumptions in some cases, but even from afar, it was made clear to him while standing on a hill facing the Gaza Strip and observing the Israeli bombing for several hours that Israel used white phosphorous bombs.
White phosphorus is a highly incendiary weapon intended to provide a smokescreen for troop movements on the battlefield that should never be used in civilian areas. Vivid video footage of the effect of white phosphorus used by Israelis during a bomb attack on Gaza was obtained by The Guardian UK.
One video shows clumps of the chemical burning on the ground as locals try to put it out by covering it with dust, mud and grass. The chemical fails to go out and continues burning through the debris piled up on top of it.
A second video obtained by the Guardian UK shows the impact of the white phosphorus on the human body. A 15-year-old boy is shown in a Gaza hospital receiving treatment for burns to his back and right arm, which the doctor explains were caused by the chemical. The chemical appears to have eaten into the boys flesh in several places.
A slideshow showing 'Phosphorus shells' hitting a Gaza UN school can also be found from The Guardian UK. White phosphorus shells were also alleged to have been used in attacks on U.N. warehouses in Gaza.
The United Nation's third convention on conventional weapons bans the use of incendiary devices such as white phosphorus. Israel is not a signatory to the convention, but its military alleges that their manuals reflect the restrictions on its use in that convention.
Isreali War Crimes Alleged By Amnesty International
Amnesty International has said that Israel has committed a war crime by using white phosphorus over Gaza's densely populated residential neighborhoods and claim they have fresh evidence of its use.
Streets and alleyways in Gaza are littered with evidence of the use of white phosphorus, including still burning wedges and the remnants of the shells and canisters fired by the Israeli army according to Christopher Cobb-Smith, a weapons expert who is in Gaza as part of a four-person Amnesty International fact-finding team.
The report issued by Amnesty International concludes that there is indisputable evidence that Israel used the potentially deadly weapon improperly.
In early January, the home of Sabah Abu Halima was reportedly hit by an Israeli shell, resulting in an inferno the burned her husband and four of their nine children to death. Ms. Halima said that when her family was hit, "fire came from the bodies of my husband and my children."
She continues: "the children were screaming, 'Fire! Fire!' and there was smoke everywhere and a horrible, suffocating smell. My 14-year-old cried out, 'I'm going to die. I want to pray.' I saw my daughter-in-law melt away."
There has been no independent confirmation, but Palestinian officials are saying that Halima's family was hit by white phosphorus.
Dr. Nafez Abu Shaban, the head of Shifa Hospital's burn unit, said the family's burns were of a kind which he had never encountered, reaching to the muscle and bone. He reported that the wounds were deeper and wider than anything he had seen and that a bad odor came from the wounds and smoke continued to come out of them for many hours. A piece of foreign matter removed from one patient was identified as white phosphorus.
Dr. Shaban reported that dozens of such case came to Shifa Hospital during the war and that his unit was unprepared to handle them. Many of the patients with the burns were sent to Egypt and abroad from there. There have been a few cases where seemingly limited burns led to the patients' deaths.
Foreign Office Minister Lord Malloch-Brown, a former U.N. deputy secretary general in London told British lawmakers that he backs an independent investigation. He said the weapon had legitimate uses but "appears to have been used...to burn and maim civilians. If that is indeed established, it is clearly a breach of the rules of war and must be exposed as such."
Other New Weapons May Have Been Used On Gazan Civilians
Another new weapon reportedly tested on Gazans is the GBU-39 --- a GPS-guided mortar manufactured by the Boeing corporation --- that was developed in Israel in late 2006-early 2007 in the wake of the Second Lebanon War. GBU-39's are small, light weight guided bombs designed to ensure that any fighter plane can carry a large number of them.
Military sources say the GBU-39 was the kind of mortar that missed its target by 30 meters and struck a United Nations Relief and Works Agency school. According to the United Nations, 30 people were killed immediately and others died later from sustained injuries.
Gazans noticed that there were bombs that produced mushroom clouds in various shades of red. Garlasco can only speculate, but he thinks it looks like Israel is using a new weapon called a DIME (Dense Inert Metal Explosive) bomb. The DIME bomb consists of 25 percent TNT and 75 percent Tungsten. DIMEs strike a very small area, 10 to 20 meters, and the fire it ignites burns out very quickly; if it hits you, you will die, but no one around you will be hurt. When you are killed, your are ripped to shreds and there is nothing left. Injuries caused by DIME bombs are in general more severe than those caused by 'regular' bombs.
No one has seen DIME bombs used before, so there are 'only rumors' at the moment that they may have been used recently, but with Israel trying to control the flow of information out of Gaza, the rumors are growing. The Belfast Telegraph reported that DIME bombs were leaving Israel's victims with mystery wounds.
Another new weapon believed to have been used by Israelis is the Spike. Spike is a special missile that is made to make very high-speed turns, so if you have a target that is moving and running away from you, you can chase them with the weapon. Spike was developed jointly by the U.S. Navy and Rafael (the Israel Armament Development Authority). Rafael manufacturers the Spike weapon.
Garlasco is also worried that Israel used the APAM (Anti-Personnel/Anti-Material) --- a new type of ammunition for tanks that was developed after Israel's war with Lebanon --- which contains six cluster bombs. The tank guns aim above a target that is hiding behind some kind of cover and the ammunition explodes above people's heads.
Hamas May Have Used Illegal Weapons
Garlasco and Human Rights Watch also believe that Hamas may have used illegal weapons --- illegal because they aren't accurate enough to be used in a situation like the Gaza conflict.
Garlasco noted that Hamas makes frequent use of land mines and explosive charges that are liable to injure civilians. Since Garlasco and his other fellow experts haven't been allowed into Gaza, they don't know the extent of any Palestinian civilian casualties killed by Hamas.
Israeli claims of weapons and ammunition being hidden in public buildings such as mosques won't be verified until they can be examined by independent sources. However, if the mosques that were blown up in the heart of densely populated residential neighborhoods did serve as hiding places for weapons and ammunition, you would have expected to see many secondary explosions which would have caused significant collateral damage and deep craters. Those claims are hard to analyze from photographs.
Israelis claim that Hamas hides behind and makes use of civilians, but as noted by Garlasco, "Isrealis are very quick to say they are doing it, but very short on proof." Keeping independent people out leaves doubt in people's minds and Israel has a record of not telling the truth.
Israel said they did not use cluster bombs in Lebanon, but 4 million were found. Israel is evading answering questions about their use of phosphorus, but many stood there for days witnessing white powder igniting after bombs exploded. Israel claimed they bombed a truck full of Grad missiles that turned out to be oxygen tanks.
The Israeli military is allegedly investigating whether its use of phosphorus weapons was improper. Isreali officials would not confirm whether the military was using white phosphorus at all, saying only that it was using weapons in legal ways. Israeli troops have reportedly already admitted using white phosphorus in Gaza.
In addition to using U.S. supplied weapons, the Israeli military seems to have picked up some of the other bad habits utilized by the U.S. military such as not telling the truth and using all kinds of propaganda to support its agenda. If past history is any indication, don't expect the Israeli military "investigation" to reveal any wrongdoing, but the cries for investigating Isreali war crimes are growing louder.
Hospitals in Gaza are full of people --- many of them children --- whose injuries and burns are so severe that they have appalled the medical teams in the hospitals. After its three-week assault on Gaza, the Israeli military withdrew its last soldiers from the Gaza Strip a day after President Obama was inaugurated.
Marc Garlasco, a senior military analyst at Human Rights Watch (HRW) went to Israel with a mission: to examine whether the weapons that both sides are using are themselves legal and whether the use of them is legal.
At the time the Haaretz article was published, Garlasco had yet to be permitted to enter Gaza --- as has been the case with many other people from other human rights organizations and journalists as well as medical teams and food supplies --- so he hasn't been able to examine the actual remnants of the explosives. He can only guess or make assumptions in some cases, but even from afar, it was made clear to him while standing on a hill facing the Gaza Strip and observing the Israeli bombing for several hours that Israel used white phosphorous bombs.
White phosphorus is a highly incendiary weapon intended to provide a smokescreen for troop movements on the battlefield that should never be used in civilian areas. Vivid video footage of the effect of white phosphorus used by Israelis during a bomb attack on Gaza was obtained by The Guardian UK.
One video shows clumps of the chemical burning on the ground as locals try to put it out by covering it with dust, mud and grass. The chemical fails to go out and continues burning through the debris piled up on top of it.
A second video obtained by the Guardian UK shows the impact of the white phosphorus on the human body. A 15-year-old boy is shown in a Gaza hospital receiving treatment for burns to his back and right arm, which the doctor explains were caused by the chemical. The chemical appears to have eaten into the boys flesh in several places.
A slideshow showing 'Phosphorus shells' hitting a Gaza UN school can also be found from The Guardian UK. White phosphorus shells were also alleged to have been used in attacks on U.N. warehouses in Gaza.
The United Nation's third convention on conventional weapons bans the use of incendiary devices such as white phosphorus. Israel is not a signatory to the convention, but its military alleges that their manuals reflect the restrictions on its use in that convention.
Isreali War Crimes Alleged By Amnesty International
Amnesty International has said that Israel has committed a war crime by using white phosphorus over Gaza's densely populated residential neighborhoods and claim they have fresh evidence of its use.
Streets and alleyways in Gaza are littered with evidence of the use of white phosphorus, including still burning wedges and the remnants of the shells and canisters fired by the Israeli army according to Christopher Cobb-Smith, a weapons expert who is in Gaza as part of a four-person Amnesty International fact-finding team.
The report issued by Amnesty International concludes that there is indisputable evidence that Israel used the potentially deadly weapon improperly.
In early January, the home of Sabah Abu Halima was reportedly hit by an Israeli shell, resulting in an inferno the burned her husband and four of their nine children to death. Ms. Halima said that when her family was hit, "fire came from the bodies of my husband and my children."
She continues: "the children were screaming, 'Fire! Fire!' and there was smoke everywhere and a horrible, suffocating smell. My 14-year-old cried out, 'I'm going to die. I want to pray.' I saw my daughter-in-law melt away."
There has been no independent confirmation, but Palestinian officials are saying that Halima's family was hit by white phosphorus.
Dr. Nafez Abu Shaban, the head of Shifa Hospital's burn unit, said the family's burns were of a kind which he had never encountered, reaching to the muscle and bone. He reported that the wounds were deeper and wider than anything he had seen and that a bad odor came from the wounds and smoke continued to come out of them for many hours. A piece of foreign matter removed from one patient was identified as white phosphorus.
Dr. Shaban reported that dozens of such case came to Shifa Hospital during the war and that his unit was unprepared to handle them. Many of the patients with the burns were sent to Egypt and abroad from there. There have been a few cases where seemingly limited burns led to the patients' deaths.
Foreign Office Minister Lord Malloch-Brown, a former U.N. deputy secretary general in London told British lawmakers that he backs an independent investigation. He said the weapon had legitimate uses but "appears to have been used...to burn and maim civilians. If that is indeed established, it is clearly a breach of the rules of war and must be exposed as such."
Other New Weapons May Have Been Used On Gazan Civilians
Another new weapon reportedly tested on Gazans is the GBU-39 --- a GPS-guided mortar manufactured by the Boeing corporation --- that was developed in Israel in late 2006-early 2007 in the wake of the Second Lebanon War. GBU-39's are small, light weight guided bombs designed to ensure that any fighter plane can carry a large number of them.
Military sources say the GBU-39 was the kind of mortar that missed its target by 30 meters and struck a United Nations Relief and Works Agency school. According to the United Nations, 30 people were killed immediately and others died later from sustained injuries.
Gazans noticed that there were bombs that produced mushroom clouds in various shades of red. Garlasco can only speculate, but he thinks it looks like Israel is using a new weapon called a DIME (Dense Inert Metal Explosive) bomb. The DIME bomb consists of 25 percent TNT and 75 percent Tungsten. DIMEs strike a very small area, 10 to 20 meters, and the fire it ignites burns out very quickly; if it hits you, you will die, but no one around you will be hurt. When you are killed, your are ripped to shreds and there is nothing left. Injuries caused by DIME bombs are in general more severe than those caused by 'regular' bombs.
No one has seen DIME bombs used before, so there are 'only rumors' at the moment that they may have been used recently, but with Israel trying to control the flow of information out of Gaza, the rumors are growing. The Belfast Telegraph reported that DIME bombs were leaving Israel's victims with mystery wounds.
Another new weapon believed to have been used by Israelis is the Spike. Spike is a special missile that is made to make very high-speed turns, so if you have a target that is moving and running away from you, you can chase them with the weapon. Spike was developed jointly by the U.S. Navy and Rafael (the Israel Armament Development Authority). Rafael manufacturers the Spike weapon.
Garlasco is also worried that Israel used the APAM (Anti-Personnel/Anti-Material) --- a new type of ammunition for tanks that was developed after Israel's war with Lebanon --- which contains six cluster bombs. The tank guns aim above a target that is hiding behind some kind of cover and the ammunition explodes above people's heads.
Hamas May Have Used Illegal Weapons
Garlasco and Human Rights Watch also believe that Hamas may have used illegal weapons --- illegal because they aren't accurate enough to be used in a situation like the Gaza conflict.
Garlasco noted that Hamas makes frequent use of land mines and explosive charges that are liable to injure civilians. Since Garlasco and his other fellow experts haven't been allowed into Gaza, they don't know the extent of any Palestinian civilian casualties killed by Hamas.
Israeli claims of weapons and ammunition being hidden in public buildings such as mosques won't be verified until they can be examined by independent sources. However, if the mosques that were blown up in the heart of densely populated residential neighborhoods did serve as hiding places for weapons and ammunition, you would have expected to see many secondary explosions which would have caused significant collateral damage and deep craters. Those claims are hard to analyze from photographs.
Israelis claim that Hamas hides behind and makes use of civilians, but as noted by Garlasco, "Isrealis are very quick to say they are doing it, but very short on proof." Keeping independent people out leaves doubt in people's minds and Israel has a record of not telling the truth.
Israel said they did not use cluster bombs in Lebanon, but 4 million were found. Israel is evading answering questions about their use of phosphorus, but many stood there for days witnessing white powder igniting after bombs exploded. Israel claimed they bombed a truck full of Grad missiles that turned out to be oxygen tanks.
The Israeli military is allegedly investigating whether its use of phosphorus weapons was improper. Isreali officials would not confirm whether the military was using white phosphorus at all, saying only that it was using weapons in legal ways. Israeli troops have reportedly already admitted using white phosphorus in Gaza.
In addition to using U.S. supplied weapons, the Israeli military seems to have picked up some of the other bad habits utilized by the U.S. military such as not telling the truth and using all kinds of propaganda to support its agenda. If past history is any indication, don't expect the Israeli military "investigation" to reveal any wrongdoing, but the cries for investigating Isreali war crimes are growing louder.
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