Human Rights Watch says Israel used white phosphorous in Gaza, Lebanon
Human Rights Watch says Israel used white phosphorous in Gaza, Lebanon
www.reuters.com
Human Rights Watch says Israel used white phosphorous in Gaza, Lebanon
28 comments
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From the original source:
The use of white phosphorus in Gaza, one of the most densely populated areas in the world, magnifies the risk to civilians and violates the international humanitarian law prohibition on putting civilians at unnecessary risk.
Upon contact, white phosphorus can burn people, thermally and chemically, down to the bone as it is highly soluble in fat and therefore in human flesh. White phosphorus fragments can exacerbate wounds even after treatment and can enter the bloodstream and cause multiple organ failure. Already dressed wounds can reignite when dressings are removed and the wounds are re-exposed to oxygen. Even relatively minor burns are often fatal. For survivors, extensive scarring tightens muscle tissue and creates physical disabilities. The trauma of the attack, the painful treatment that follows, and appearance-changing scars lead to psychological harm and social exclusion.
Attacks using air-delivered incendiary weapons in civilian areas are prohibited under Protocol III of the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW). While the protocol contains weaker restrictions for ground-launched incendiary weapons, all types of incendiary weapons produce horrific injuries. Protocol III applies only to weapons that are “primarily designed” to set fires or cause burns, and thus some countries believe it excludes certain multipurpose munitions with incendiary effects, notably those containing white phosphorus.
Human Rights Watch and many states have long called for closing these loopholes in Protocol III. Palestine joined Protocol III on January 5, 2015, and Lebanon on April 5, 2017, while Israel has not ratified it.
And for some context on exactly how fatal this might be in a place like Gaza...
We're talking about place where urban areas are 4x as dense as Los Angeles. Where people are not in the most steady health to begin with, given that 90-95% of the water supply is unsuitable for consumption, over 75% are food-insecure, 50% suffering malnutrition, the median age is 18, and there is no electricity or fuel to power the hospitals and ambulances -- not that it matters anyway, because even humanitarian aid facilities are being targeted by air strikes.
You could easily die from a small cut in Gaza. Anyone in the AoE here is totally fucked.
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This is fucking sickening. I don’t know how anybody and particularly our governments in the West can justify supporting Israel when they sort to tacts like these knowing full well they (Israel) have the upper hand, in terms of military arsenal and access to advance weaponry.
The West cannot call itself the bastion of human rights when all of that is ignored for people that need it the most in Gaza and Palestine.
Bunch of fucking hypocrites. It’s shameful and it’s pathetic.
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They have used it in the past, and so has the United States. It seems extremely likely it will be used in the course of this conflict as well given that Israel has specifically not signed the battlefield convention banning its use in conventional warfare.
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It provided links to two videos posted on social media that it said show "155mm white phosphorus artillery projectiles being used, apparently as smokescreens, marking, or signaling". Both show scenes near the Israel-Lebanon border, it said.
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White phosphorus munitions can legally be used on battlefields to make smoke screens, generate illumination, mark targets or burn bunkers and buildings.
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But they are banned to use in densely populated areas because they can cause severe burns in humans.
White phosphorus, which can be used as a smokescreen or a weapon, 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.
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When you think they can't do worse...
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It's still going to get so much worse, unfortunately. Israel looks to be gearing up for a ground invasion, so you can expect Gaza to look like Grozny after the Chechen war.
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
JERUSALEM, Oct 13 (Reuters) - Human Rights Watch on Thursday accused Israel of using white phosphorus munitions in its military operations in Gaza and Lebanon, saying the use of such weapons puts civilians at risk of serious and long-term injury.
Israel has been bombarding Gaza in retaliation for a Hamas rampage in southern Israeli towns that killed at least 1,300 people this week.
It provided links to two videos posted on social media that it said show "155mm white phosphorus artillery projectiles being used, apparently as smokescreens, marking, or signaling".
Palestinian TV channels have broadcast video in recent days showing thin plumes of white smoke lining the sky over Gaza that they say was caused by such munitions.
Israel's military in 2013 said it was phasing out white phosphorus smokescreen munitions used during its 2008-2009 offensive in Gaza, which drew war crimes allegations from various rights groups.
White phosphorus munitions can legally be used on battlefields to make smoke screens, generate illumination, mark targets or burn bunkers and buildings.
The original article contains 404 words, the summary contains 169 words. Saved 58%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
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Hmm - the proof seems kinda thin, but the Israeli military should explicitly deny or confirm whether WP was used
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Kind of like internationally distributed reports that Hamas decapitated babies?
Except one sounds bizzare and the other perfectly fits the M.O.
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What’s so bizarre? You think that people who killed and burned civilians alive while their hands are tied have any simpathy to stop at beheadings?
Also, yeah, WP was probably used in signaling and smokescreen - meaning small quantities as they are present in the American ammunition the IDF uses. You know, many countries use Barium in their tracer ammunition, which is highly toxic. It doesn’t count as chemical warfare tho.
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The videos attached to the claim show it being used for smokescreens, which Reuters comments is legal.
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@idkwhatimdoing it's only legal for smokescreens if you have taken all reasonable precautions to ensure that by doing so, you're not also inflicting it on civillians.
The injuries it produces are horrific.
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But not in densely populated areas, because it can cause severe burns.
White phosphorus, which can be used as a smokescreen or a weapon, 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.
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In Star Wars terms Israel is the Empire and Hamas are the Rebels.
The Rebels ruthlessly murdered hundreds of millions of people when they blew up the Death Star.
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Military targets are morally different than civilian targets with or without collateral damage. Hamas are not the heroes.
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Hamas knew what was coming when they launched their senseless terror. The blood of civilians on the Gaza Strip is on their hands.
Likewise, Netanyahu and his far right government has been provoking this intentionally. He has the blood of Israeli citizen on his. They did not expect an attack to be this successful, but I guaran-fucking-tee you they were waiting for and intentionally provoking an opportunity to strike back.
Both of them intentionally kill civilians. Both can get fucked.
If you're looking for heroes, start with the people working for UN schools at the Gaza Strip.
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That would fly if Israel a) hadn't been targeting civilians for 40 years and b) didn't respond by targeting civilians.
You really need to shut your fucking mouth when you clearly have no fucking clue what happened literally this week.
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That's an awful analogy - go watch Clerks if you want the full explanation but the Death Star was a military installment... Hamas has intentional attacked civilians but I must have missed the part of Star Wars where Admiral Ackbar carpet bombed Coruscant.
Both parties in this war are guilty of finding civilian casualties perfectly acceptable and have intentionally attacked non-military targets.
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To keep the analogy going, they would have to have raped and beheaded the occupants of the death star before actually blowing them up...and the Death Star would have to have been an Imperial tourist destination with not just Imperial citizens, but also visiting citizens from all across the galaxy..but if that's what George Lucas had filmed, I think there would have been a lot less sympathy for the rebels.
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