ISRAEL HAS admitted – after facing mounting pressure – that its troops may have used white phosphorus shells, in contravention of international law, during its three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip.
As the last Israeli troops left the strip before dawn yesterday, the military said it would look at claims by the UN and human rights groups that it improperly used the munition.
One of the places most seriously affected by the use of white phosphorus was the main UN compound in Gaza City, which was hit by three shells on January 15th. The same munition was used in a strike on the al-Quds hospital in Gaza City the same day.
Under review by Israeli colonel Shai Alkalai is the use of white phosphorus by a reserve paratroop brigade in northern Israel. According to army sources the brigade fired up to 20 phosphorus shells into a heavily built-up area around the township of Beit Lahiya, one of the worst-hit areas of Gaza.
The internal inquiry – which the army says does not have the status of the full investigation demanded by human rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch – follows weeks of fighting in which Israel either denied outright that it was using phosphorus weapons or insisted that what it was using was “in line with international law”.
– ( Guardianservice)