White phosphorus, 'terror weapon'

Reuters image from Sunday. Reuters does not identify shell as containing white phosphorus. But, from the Times of London:

Israel is believed to be using controversial white phosphorus shells to screen its assault on the heavily populated Gaza Strip yesterday. The weapon, used by British and US forces in Iraq, can cause horrific burns but is not illegal if used as a smokescreen.

As the Israeli army stormed to the edges of Gaza City and the Palestinian death toll topped 500, the tell-tale shells could be seen spreading tentacles of thick white smoke to cover the troops’ advance. “These explosions are fantastic looking, and produce a great deal of smoke that blinds the enemy so that our forces can move in,” said one Israeli security expert. Burning blobs of phosphorus would cause severe injuries to anyone caught beneath them...

The use of the weapon in the Gaza Strip, one of the world’s mostly densely population areas, is likely to ignite yet more controversy over Israel’s offensive, in which more than 2,300 Palestinians have been wounded.

The Geneva Treaty of 1980 stipulates that white phosphorus should not be used as a weapon of war in civilian areas, but there is no blanket ban under international law on its use as a smokescreen or for illumination. However, Charles Heyman, a military expert and former major in the British Army, said: “If white phosphorus was deliberately fired at a crowd of people someone would end up in The Hague. White phosphorus is also a terror weapon. The descending blobs of phosphorus will burn when in contact with skin.”

Thanks to Rupa Shah.

Comments

[Rowan Berkeley]

I didn't think this story was worth notice, because it carefully and punctiliously leaves the door open for the official IDF claim, that these white phosphorus shells are only used to provide a wall of smoke to cover an infantry advance. If there was even a hint of scepticism expressed regarding this claim, I couldn't see it. It was not endorsed either, simply left on the table as the last word, so to speak.

[A blogger from Lebanon]

Contrast Israel's targeting of civilians with genocidal phosphorous shells, with the real "victims" of Hamas fire :

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/08qt72W7dj89m/610x.jpg
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/09Wa8PQal64C0/610x.jpg
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/026a6kLeiscrP/340x.jpg
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0e1t1fVa3T7Mf/340x.jpg

They sure doesn't look like they're kicking the shit out of Hamas. And these pictures are from fighting in non-urban areas. Wait til they try to go into urban areas. Hamas might not even get the chance to shoot at them. They will be eaten alive by the people who have been bombed by the terrorists.

[A blogger from Lebanon]

Here's what a zionist victory looks like, I guess:

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0aQJdet6cO0Jh/610x.jpg
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0bYh9un0gn78x/610x.jpg

Could they be some of the soldiers who sustained "cold weather injuries"?

[Grumpy Old Man]

No doubt Charles Millán Astray Krauthammer, or Noah Pollak will show us how humane and just this is. Phosphorus builds strong bodies, perhaps, or its glow entertains the kiddies so they die happy.

Good Lord. This thing has turned me into a bitter old man. Imagine how I'd react if I were Palestinian.

[Tommy]

The phosphorus bombs were gifts from America to Israel. They make the Rev. Haggee smile.

[Eurosabra]

Those are airbursts, being used as a smokescreen. Civilians in Gaza will have overhead cover from their dwellings or vehicles, and I doubt the farmers are working their fields. Problematic of course for rocket launchers in open areas. And the whole point of smokescreens is that you put them in empty ground, so that people can't see ACROSS open empty space to your troops. "Shake n'bake" does not seem to be part of the Israeli vocabulary.

[rabbi kook]

ON contrar, Eurosabra, shake n bake is exactly what Israel is doing--the leaders should be shot, just as the Americans who allowed that in Iraq should be shot. Go back to Israel.

[Eurosabra]

Not any of the REAL Rabbi Kooks,

None of the video from Shifa Hospital shows people with WP burns. I assume you also want the leaders of Hamas shot for shooting ball-bearing-stuffed rockets into Israel--they are an "indiscriminate anti-personnel" weapon violation of the main GCs, whereas incendiary weapons are a protocol. Hypocrite.

[kassandra]

Just read a story about the "traumatized" population of Sderot pulling their plastic lawn chairs onto higher spaces to get a better view of the Gaza Warsaw Ghetto massaacre and comment approvingly. Not much concern about those bottle rockets here.

Then there was the Times of London White Phosphorous story marked on a pro-Israel site and the readers were urged to visit the article and post "favorable comments".

There is an 800 pound gorilla in the room that noone mentions: Israel and its claque, a la yurosabra above, are making anti-Semitism respectable. Do you think the average whitey will be able to, or even bother, separating the anti-Zionist jews from the Zionists?

[Paul Malfara]

If Zionism equals Judaism,
anti-semitism is a moral imperative.

PM

[Jim Haygood`]

Well it's official. Jews winning drives Jew-haters INSANE!

[MM]

"Well, we didn't root out Hamas, but we did win ourselves a Third Intifada!"

[anonn]

I see Madoff is officially now not considered a risk to jump to Israel--maybe he'll get there just in time for that third intifada?

[anonn]

Er, maybe not--his former swindled buddies might protest in
public; anyway, here's a wonderful write-up showing the nice silver
lining inside Madoff's cloudy head:

http://www.rense.com/general84/amateur.htm

You don't want to miss it!

[Eurosabra]

Let's see, Kassandra, anti-Semitism without a Jewish state, 70-1948. Now anti-Semitism with a Jewish state. Nu?

[Cooper]

None of the CNN images of these shells exploding were described as depicting white phosphorus use. I commented to friends that we were watching a war crime unfold; it was easy to see the fragments rain down on streets and homes and then ignite. These shells weren't fired on fields or open areas to provide a smoke screen; they were aimed at heavily-populated urban areas. It was simple to identify them as WP; wonder if CNN will be chastised for running the video, even without proper commentary.

[Eurosabra]

WP is damned inefficient for any purpose other than smokescreen if you let it airburst onto the flat stone and tile roofs and metal water tanks of a standard Middle Eastern city. If the IDF is trying to burn Gaza or Gazans, it's not doing a very effective job of it. They might get some laundry or REALLY light up someone's water tank, though.

[cooper]

All of the CNN video I saw was taken at night, in near total darkness. The airbursts were very low, providing little illumination.

How efficient are smokescreens created during pitch-black night?

http://www.counterpunch.org/cloughley01052009.html
"American troops used WP – fondly known as Willy Pete – in their destruction of the Iraqi city of Fallujah, and the US tried to lie its way out of the war crime, but junior officers unintentionally blew the lies apart by writing in the magazine Field Artillery that "WP proved to be an effective and versatile munition. We used it for screening missions . . . and, later in the fight, as a potent psychological weapon against insurgents in trench lines and spider holes . . . We fired 'shake and bake' missions at the insurgents using WP to flush them out and high explosive shells (HE) to take them out."

[Eurosabra]

Israel's wasting WP, then. A burst under the conditions you describe would pretty much do nothing. And I say that as a medical first responder who's handled the effects of an accidental ground-level detonation of a small WP grenade.

[cooper]

Eurosayanim, any white phosphorus detonation has the potential of great harm to anyone near. I've seen the effects. The intent of the use of these bursts in Gaza could not have been to target military personnel or to provide a smokescreen. Therefore by UN convention the use of WP in Gaza is a war crime. The Pentagon, in charging Saddam Hussein with crimes against the Kurds, acknowledged that WP is a banned chemical weapon.

I hope you're paid well, Eurosayanim. Fanatical ideology puts little bread on the table.

http://www.monbiot.com/archives/2005/11/22/a-war-crime-within-a-war-crime-within-a-war-crime/#more-961