Israel Admits Using Phosphorous Weapons

During Israel's fight against Hezbollah troops in southern Lebanon this past summer, the Israeli army faced the daunting task of trying to pinpoint military targets that were peppered within civilian areas. The result was incredible carnage as collateral damage claimed the lives of civilians on both sides of the conflict, with Hezbollah indiscriminately attacking areas with civilians and Israelis killing Lebanese where Hezbollah troops were operating. Despite claims that the army worked to pinpoint strictly military targets, Israel now admits to having used white phosphorous based weapons, incendiary devices capable of inflicting massive burns during the conflict, raising the question of how strictly their counterassaults were directed against military centers of operation.

Cabinet minister Jacob Edery confirmed the bombs were dropped "against military targets in open ground".

Israel had previously said the weapons were used only to mark targets.

Phosphorus weapons cause chemical burns and the Red Cross and human rights groups say they should be treated as chemical weapons.

The Geneva Conventions ban the use of white phosphorous as an incendiary weapon against civilian populations and in air attacks against military forces in civilian areas.

Mr Edery says he confirmed during a parliamentary session last week on behalf of Defence Minister Amir Peretz that the weapons were used in fighting.

"The Israeli army made use of phosphorous shells during the war against Hezbollah in attacks against military targets in open ground," he said.
The usage of phosphorous in warfare against civilian targets is restricted by the 1980 UN Convention on Certain Conventional weapons, to which Israel is a signatory party, in an attempt to minimize the significant collateral damage these weapons are capable of creating.

The Israeli government is insisting that while the weapons were used, they were operating within the allowable treaty guidelines. Certainly the nature of the military operations against Hezbollah made it exceedingly difficult to distinguish between military and civilian targets (is an apartment building with a Hezbollah sniper inside a military or civilian structure?) However, the civilian recipients of these bombs might have argued for a more judicious use of these munitions.

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