The Lebanese government and human rights group Amnesty International have accused Israel of using white phosphorous during an attack on Dahaira in south Lebanon on October 16. The allegations come amid near-daily fire between Israeli army and Iran-backed Hezbollah movement since the war with Hamas broke out on October 7.
Amnesty, in its investigative report, alleged that the Israeli army had fired artillery shells containing white phosphorus in military operations along Lebanon’s southern border between 10 and 16 October.
"One attack on the town of Dahaira on 16 October must be investigated as a war crime because it was an indiscriminate attack that injured at least nine civilians and damaged civilian objects, and was therefore unlawful," read the organisation's report.
"It is beyond horrific that the Israeli army has indiscriminately used white phosphorous in violation of international humanitarian law," said Aya Majzoub, Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.
Lebanon said it would file a complaint to the UN over, with a minister alleging the incendiary weapon had burned 40,000 olive trees.
"I instructed the Lebanese mission to the UN to submit a new complaint to the Security Council to condemn Israel's use of white phosphorus in repeated attacks on Lebanon," Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib said.
Agriculture Minister Abbas Al Hajj Hassan said Israeli white phosphorus strikes burnt down 40,000 olive trees in Lebanon's south. His ministry found in a preliminary survey that "128 fires resulted from the Israeli enemy’s phosphorus bombing of our regions", he told AFP.
White phosphorus, an incendiary substance that catches fire upon contact with the air, is mostly used to create a dense smoke screen or mark targets. When the artillery-fired munition explodes, the white phosphorus automatically ignites in the air, creating white lines followed by a thick smoke.
It burns at extremely high temperatures when exposed to air and can continue to cause severe burns inside the flesh. It causes horrific pain and life-changing injuries, and has been known to reignite after initial treatment. The smoke from burning phosphorus is also harmful to the eyes and respiratory tract due to the presence of phosphoric acids and phosphine.
White phosphorus falls under the 1983 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, which restricts incendiary weapons without banning their use altogether. While the convention outlaws their use against civilians and non-military targets as well as their deployment against military targets near civilians, it does not cover deployment for smokescreening or battlefield illumination.
Notably, this isn't the first time Israel has been accused of white phosphorous attacks since the conflict broke out on October 7. Multiple reports have emerged accusing Israel of using white phosphorous as part of its military operations in Gaza and Lebanon.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that it verified videos taken in Lebanon and Gaza on October 10 and 11 respectively, showing multiple airbursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over the Gaza City port and two rural areas along the Israel-Lebanon border. HRW said that it also interviewed two people who described an attack in Gaza.
The Washington Post, in its report on October 12, also verified a video showing two artillery shells fired in quick succession toward the Gaza City port. Similarly, Amnesty's Crisis Evidence Lab said that it had verified reports of Israeli military units striking Gaza with white phosphorus artillery rounds.
(With additional inputs from AFP)