On the eve of a new meeting of the UN Security Council, the Washington Post claimed that the weapons allegedly used to send white phosphorus to Lebanon in October came from the United States. A possible war crime, according to human rights groups.
What there is to know
- THE Washington Post reported Monday that Israel used U.S.-supplied white phosphorus canisters in a strike in Lebanon. The attack reportedly destroyed four houses and injured nine civilians.
- After the failure to pass a ceasefire due to the American veto, the UN Security Council is due to meet again this Tuesday.
- The Israeli army intensified its raids on the Gaza Strip on Monday.
“It is possible that the United States is complicit in war crimes,” immediately agrees Walter Dorn, professor at the Royal Military College of Canada.
A journalist from Washington Post went to Dheira, a town of 2,000 inhabitants in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel. On site, he investigated the allegation of use of white phosphorus by the Israeli army on October 10 and 16, the American newspaper reported Monday. A use first denounced by Amnesty International.
According to Washington Postthe journalist found the remains of three 155-millimeter shells.
The production codes found on the shells match the nomenclature used by the U.S. military, according to the Post. They are believed to have been manufactured in Louisiana and Arkansas in 1989 and 1992. Other details correspond to white phosphorus cartridges.
The attack reportedly destroyed four houses and injured nine civilians, including one person who had to stay in hospital for several days. “White phosphorus has major effects: the substance will burn through the skin and bones. If it hits civilians, it will burn through their bodies,” explains Mr. Dorn.
It burns at a very high temperature, it stays attached to the skin, it permeates the wood, the materials, and it consumes them.
Rémi Landry, lecturer at the University of Sherbrooke and former lieutenant-colonel of the Canadian Armed Forces
The US government said it was “concerned” on Monday after the article was published. “We’re going to ask questions to try to find out a little bit more,” said John Kirby, a White House National Security Council spokesman.
Restricted military use
The use of white phosphorus is regulated by the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, which dates from the early 1980s, explains Mr. Dorn. It is possible to use it for its lighting or smoke effects.
For Rémi Landry, it is difficult to understand how the Israeli army could have used this substance for these purposes in Lebanon.
The “legitimate” use of white phosphorus is intended to “illuminate and produce smoke to conceal movements,” John Kirby of the White House also clarified.
On the other hand, any use on civilians or military targets in civilian environments is prohibited.
Israel has not ratified the section concerning white phosphorus in this Convention. On the other hand, the United States, yes. And that gives them a “certain responsibility” for the uses of weapons sold to Israel, believe the two experts interviewed by The Press.
When we supply materials such as white phosphorus to another military, it is for use in this legitimate manner and in accordance with the law of armed conflict.
John Kirby, White House National Security Council spokesman
Recall that Human Rights Watch also reported the use of white phosphorus by the Israeli army in the Gaza port in October, an allegation denied by Israel.
The bombings intensify
New strikes by the Israeli army on Monday targeted the towns of Khan Younes and Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of civilians are massed after fleeing the fighting in the North.
PHOTO IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA, REUTERS
Israeli strike in Khan Younes on Monday
In Khan Younes, the Israeli army is “dismantling Hamas infrastructure,” army spokesperson Daniel Hagari said Monday evening. According to him, “more than 500 terrorists” have also been arrested over the past month in the Gaza Strip. A total of 104 Israeli soldiers have died since the ground fighting began.
According to the Hamas Ministry of Health, more than 18,200 people have lost their lives in the Palestinian territory since the Israeli response, mainly women, children and adolescents.
PHOTO FATIMA SHBAIR, ASSOCIATED PRESS
A house destroyed by an Israeli strike in Rafah on Monday
Rockets fired from Gaza towards Israel also caused damage and left one person lightly injured in Holon, a suburb of Tel Aviv, police said on Monday.
“Apocalyptic”
The situation in the Gaza Strip is “apocalyptic”, warned Monday the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell, for whom the level of destruction in the Palestinian territory is “more or less, even greater” than that of Germany during of the Second World War.
PHOTO IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA, REUTERS
Displaced Palestinians seek refuge in a camp in Khan Younes.
“Everything is gone. I have four children left out of eleven,” Oum Mohammed-al-Jabri, a 56-year-old woman, told Agence France-Presse. Staying with her brother in Rafah, she lost seven children in a strike on their house in the middle of the night. “We went from Gaza to Khan Yunis and then we were moved to Rafah. That night they bombed the house and destroyed it. They said Rafah would be a safe place. There is no safe place. »
Before visiting the territory, the director of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, declared for his part that “more and more people have not eaten for a day, two days, three days… People lack everything.”
“Crowds wait for hours around aid distribution centers, people are in desperate need of food, water, shelter, care and protection,” while “the absence of latrines adds to the risks of spreading diseases,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Monday.
New checkpoints
The Israeli army announced Monday evening the establishment of two additional checkpoints for the inspection of international humanitarian aid before entering the Palestinian territory through Rafah.
“This measure will double the amount of humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip,” the army said on X.
No new access will be opened, the army said, but the Nitzana and Kerem Shalom crossing points will be used to carry out checks before sending trucks through Rafah.
With Agence France-Presse