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  • SUNDAY OCTOBER 22 2006 2:00 PM

Israel Admits Using Phosphorous Weapons

Submitted by legionnaire

Edited by legionnaire

Tags: Israel, phosphorous, geneva conventions, Hezbollah

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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Comments
RudieCantFail

RudieCantFail

Baton Rouge, LA
January 2006

OCT 24, 2006 01:18 PM

Andvari said:

SpectreInTheUK said:
Yeah, last time I checked. the job of the military is still to kill people. M16s don't shoot kittens and sunshine.




Althought it would be cool fabulous if they did.



ThetotalM

ThetotalM

Providence, RI
July 2004

OCT 24, 2006 01:43 PM

DavidAwood said:
Ok, my question is, what happens if the UN or another governing body desides that Isreal used these waepons inlawfully? Does anything happen, or does someone walk up and say, bad boy! Real bad boy!



thats a damn good question....hopefully we'll get an answer...and Isreal will have to pay for using such a dangerous device.

NewSpectre

NewSpectre

Baltimore, MD
March 2005

OCT 24, 2006 01:52 PM

ThetotalM said:

DavidAwood said:
Ok, my question is, what happens if the UN or another governing body desides that Isreal used these waepons inlawfully? Does anything happen, or does someone walk up and say, bad boy! Real bad boy!



thats a damn good question....hopefully we'll get an answer...and Isreal will have to pay for using such a dangerous device.



the UN will probably do exactly what it does whenever anybody else breaks it's mandates.

not a damn thing.

and do you realize what you just said? that isreal will have to pay for using sucha dangerous device? A 1000lb H.E. bomb is far more dangerous than willy pete, but I bet you wouldn't suggest Isreal pay for using those.

Dead is dead.

Volkov

Volkov

San Antonio, TX
OLD SKOOL

OCT 24, 2006 02:01 PM

Andvari said:

SpectreInTheUK said:
Yeah, last time I checked. the job of the military is still to kill people. M16s don't shoot kittens and sunshine.




Althought it would be cool if they did.



well...unless the AK-47s pointed back in your direction were firing actual bullets and not duckies and daisies that is.

quagmirething

quagmirething

I'm lost
June 2005

OCT 24, 2006 02:30 PM

mamhth said:
they should have used nukes.


Oooh, drive by hate speech. How delightful.

NewSpectre

NewSpectre

Baltimore, MD
March 2005

OCT 24, 2006 02:31 PM

quagmirething said:

mamhth said:
they should have used nukes.


Oooh, drive by hate speech. How delightful.



how exactly is that hate speech?

quagmirething

quagmirething

I'm lost
June 2005

OCT 24, 2006 03:02 PM

SpectreInTheUK said:
how exactly is that hate speech?


He wanders into threads, advocates the mass slaughter of Muslims, or expresses sadness that more didn't die, and leaves.

As to the details of how what was written reaches the bench mark of being hate speech. Naturally there is a subjective element. How unreasonable would the use of nuclear weapons in Lebanon have been? I'm not sure where to begin. You don't agree with the basis for much of the international treaties on warfare, they call for proportionality. "Dead is dead" doesn't really address the reasons why WP is not allowed to be used in civilian areas. I would call what he advocates grossly disproportionate, indicative of hatred.

SockPuppet

SockPuppet

I'm lost
July 2006

OCT 24, 2006 03:21 PM

SpectreInTheUK said:
Willy Pete shouldn't be banned anyways. Good stuff it is.



I'm told that there was outrage when NVA forces used napalm to take bunkers outside Khe Sanh.

Dead_Ringer

Dead_Ringer

I'm lost
September 2004

OCT 24, 2006 04:24 PM

SpectreInTheUK said:

Volkov said:

Andvari said:

SpectreInTheUK said:
Yeah, last time I checked. the job of the military is still to kill people. M16s don't shoot kittens and sunshine.




Althought it would be cool if they did.



well...unless the AK-47s pointed back in your direction were firing actual bullets and not duckies and daisies that is.



it's not the AK-47s that kill my brothers, everybody knows that durka durkas can't shoot worth shit.


Your "brothers"? You mean the people, who actually, you know, are putting their life in danger while you pontificate on a message board? Is "durka durka" supposed to make you look like the tough guy you dream of being?

I'm not even kidding when I say this, they believe that "if Allah wills it, I will hit him" so they don't even train on aiming, they just point and shoot.


And you believe that you post witty and informed points on message boards, and that advocating war crimes while never having to face the consequences of what you advocate somehow makes you worthy of respect and admiration. In reality, you are just another 20 year old child fantasizing about playing war. Again, fortunately, you will never atain any position of authority, thereby permitting you to live out your little torture fantasies.

d20

d20

San Francisco, CA
September 2003

OCT 24, 2006 04:54 PM

Deader_Ringer said:
In reality, you are just another 20 year old child fantasizing about playing war.



EnderInTheUK?

MisterGone

MisterGone

Minneapolis, MN
March 2006

OCT 24, 2006 05:04 PM

I'm thinking he's a bit more like Peter.

d20

d20

San Francisco, CA
September 2003

OCT 24, 2006 05:46 PM

someone should really start a fake blog for Andrew and have a fake Peter troll the comments on it.

MisterGone

MisterGone

Minneapolis, MN
March 2006

OCT 24, 2006 06:02 PM

And I'll put the moves on the fake Valentine love biggrin

NewSpectre

NewSpectre

Baltimore, MD
March 2005

OCT 24, 2006 11:00 PM

Deader_Ringer said:

SpectreInTheUK said:

Volkov said:

Andvari said:

SpectreInTheUK said:
Yeah, last time I checked. the job of the military is still to kill people. M16s don't shoot kittens and sunshine.




Althought it would be cool if they did.



well...unless the AK-47s pointed back in your direction were firing actual bullets and not duckies and daisies that is.



it's not the AK-47s that kill my brothers, everybody knows that durka durkas can't shoot worth shit.


Your "brothers"? You mean the people, who actually, you know, are putting their life in danger while you pontificate on a message board? Is "durka durka" supposed to make you look like the tough guy you dream of being?

I'm not even kidding when I say this, they believe that "if Allah wills it, I will hit him" so they don't even train on aiming, they just point and shoot.


And you believe that you post witty and informed points on message boards, and that advocating war crimes while never having to face the consequences of what you advocate somehow makes you worthy of respect and admiration. In reality, you are just another 20 year old child fantasizing about playing war. Again, fortunately, you will never atain any position of authority, thereby permitting you to live out your little torture fantasies.



Your post falls apart when I tell you that I am in the military, that half of my unit is deployed to Bagdad right now, and that the only reason I'm not with them is that because of my job they couldn't send our entire unit and I didn't get lucky enough to go, even though I volunteered.

But in June I may get another shot at going. My name is in the hat for that deployment as well.

uproot

uproot

San Diego, CA
June 2004

OCT 24, 2006 11:54 PM

WP is N O T a chemical weapon. It is a regular-ass incendiary. This is uninteresting news.

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