Euro-Mediterranean Observatory: Israeli occupation directed more than 1,000 strikes with white phosphorus on populated areas in Gaza.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory confirmed that the Israeli occupation army has launched more than 1,000 strikes with artillery shells containing internationally banned white phosphorus in populated areas since the start of its bloody war on Gaza Strip on the 7th of October.
The Observatory documented the occupation army’s use of white phosphorus in populated areas in Gaza City and its north as an additional weapon to escalate genocide and forced displacement. It said that it received reports that the Israeli army carried out 300 strikes with white phosphorus within a period not exceeding 40 minutes on Wednesday evening on a populated square in the town of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. A large number of white phosphorus shells were fired in a crowded area in Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, north of Gaza City. This was preceded by the use of white phosphorus several times in the Beach refugee camp, west of Gaza, and the town and camp of Jabalia, north of Gaza Strip.
The Observatory quoted the people of the Gaza Strip as saying: They suffered from severe shortness of breath and coughing as a result of inhaling white phosphorus amid extremely unpleasant odors spreading in the air and a large obstruction of vision due to the thick white smoke. It indicated that white phosphorus is an incendiary substance that burns human flesh and causes damage to the respiratory system and causes organ failure and other serious casualties, including burns that are difficult to treat and cannot be extinguished with water.
The Observatory stated that the escalation in the use of white phosphorus and smoke bombs targeting crowded residential areas comes within the framework of forced displacement and ethnic cleansing practiced by the Israeli occupation army by forcing half of Gaza’s population to leave their homes, shelters, and hospitals and move to areas south of Gaza Valley.
The Observatory pointed out that in addition to white phosphorus, the Israeli occupation uses explosive bombs with huge destructive effects in populated areas, as entire residential neighborhoods were leveled and turned into rubble and ruin in Gaza Strip. It noted that Israel’s use of internationally banned weapons is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and the rules of war which stresses the need to protect civilians, and considers their killing a war crime and a crime against humanity.
The Observatory stressed that the use of white phosphorus is prohibited under international law, and it should never be fired at or near inhabited residential areas and civilian infrastructure. It reiterated the call for the formation of an independent international investigation committee into the internationally prohibited weapons used and are being used by the Israeli occupation against civilians in Gaza and holding those responsible for that accountable.
Inas Abdulkareem