Israel Defense Force (IDF) has been accused of bombing on Wednesday around 17 Southern Lebanese municipalities, including populated residential areas, using the internationally banned “white phosphorus,”Human Rights Watch said.
“White phosphorus is a chemical substance dispersed in artillery shells, bombs and rockets that ignites when exposed to oxygen,” explained the same source.
“Israel forces should immediately stop using white phosphorus munitions in populated areas, especially when less-harmful alternatives are readily available”, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch, Ramzi Kaiss, pointed out.
The watchdog said that the deployment of white phosphorous was used to remove civilians from their homes in southern Lebanon.
It said that Israel is not a party to Protocol III of the Convention on Conventional Weapons, however, Lebanon is.
Tension has risen along the border between Lebanon and Israel, with sporadic exchanges of fire between Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah, the worst confrontation since the two sides fought a full-fledged war in 2006.
The escalation came amid an Israeli military onslaught in the Gaza Strip, which has killed over 36,500 Palestinians in retaliation to Palestinian organization Hamas’ attack on October 7 last year.
The IDF used white phosphorus on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, as evidenced by images provided by Anadolu, which Amnesty International used in its report published on October 15, 2023, saying that the Crisis Evidence Lab verified that Israeli military units hitting Gaza were equipped with white phosphorus artillery rounds.