Captured footage out of Lebanon that was obtained by HRW shows multiple artillery-fired white phosphorus attacks on the Gaza City port, as well as in two rural locations along the Israel-Lebanon border.
In case you are unfamiliar with it, white phosphorus is a highly destructive chemical substance dispersed in artillery shells that ignites when exposed to oxygen. Because it can cause sometimes bone-deep burns and other damage to humans, it is banned as a chemical weapon under international conventions.
"White phosphorus is a lethal chemical capable of burning human skin and disintegrating tissues deep inside the body," HRW says. "It ignites when exposed to oxygen and continues to burn until it is deprived of oxygen or exhausted."
HRW interviewed two people who personally saw Israel's white phosphorus attack in Gaza, revealing that it was used in a densely populated area with lots of civilians.
"Any time that white phosphorus is used in crowded civilian areas, it poses a high risk of excruciating burns and lifelong suffering," said Lama Fakih, HRW's director for the Middle East and North Africa in a statement.
"White phosphorus is unlawfully indiscriminate when airburst in populated urban areas, where it can burn down houses and cause egregious harm to civilians.
(Related: Globalist Henry Kissinger is fuming about all the refugees that he and other "elites" brought into Europe over the past decade or so because nearly all of them are pro-Palestine.)
Israel's use of white phosphorus in civilian-populated areas is a WAR CRIME under international law
While it could be argued that there is a time and a place to use white phosphorus, such an argument only applies for targets that do not have thousands, and potentially millions, of innocent civilians living nearby.
In this case, Israel seems to have indiscriminately blasted the Gaza City port despite the presence of lots of civilians, which likely exposed at least some of them to the toxic, poisonous substance as they were going about their day.
HRW says that Israel should ban all use of "airburst" white phosphorus munitions in populated areas without any exception, especially since there are non-lethal alternatives available.
The fact that Israel decided not to use a non-lethal alternative suggests the sheer hatred the regime has for the Palestinians that were forced into the open-air concentration camp known as Gaza.
Amnesty International weapons investigator Brian Castner says he fully agrees with HRW's assessment that Israel did, in fact, use white phosphorus in several recent attacks.
"There are legitimate uses of white phosphorus, for marking and screening, but they are very, very few," Castner told Al Jazeera. "White phosphorus should never be used in densely populated areas, and Gaza is one of the most densely populated places in the world."
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) denies all use of white phosphorus in Gaza, claiming the accusation is "unequivocally false."
The United Nations Convention on Conventional Weapons prohibits the use of white phosphorus in any place where civilians are located. It is not, however, banned entirely since it can be used in unpopulated areas to generate smokescreens, mark targets, and incinerate enemy targets.
Many do not believe Israel's claim that it did not use white phosphorus in this latest round of attacks because the regime did use it in its 2009 bombardment of Gaza, drawing widespread condemnation.
In 2013, the Israeli military claimed it would no longer use white phosphorus in populated areas except in exceptional circumstance, this following a petition to Israel's High Court.
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