Following the white phosphorus trail

[Kirsch:] As civilians in Gaza suffer from agonizing burn injuries caused by what human rights officials suspect are American-made white phosphorus-filled artillery shells sold to and fired by the Israeli military. 10,000 km away, it’s bowling night in the US town of Pine Bluff Arkansas where these artillery shells are made (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009a, np link).

[Kirsch:] In this economically depressed community where much of Main Street is boarded up and going broke the [Pine Bluff] Arsenal is a lifesaver for the 2,000 people it employs (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009a, np link).

[Interviewee:] Well, you know, I never knew they made weapons down here in Pine Bluff and they use them in Gaza. That’s wrong (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009c, np link).

[Kirsch:] Do you think most people know about that here? [Interviewee:] No. … They ain’t seeing nothing like this (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009c, np link).

[Interviewee:] They don’t say that type of stuff on the news (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009a, np link).

[Interviewee:] Maybe the information gets filtered (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009c, np link).

[Interviewee:] They ain’t gonna show you what they don’t want you to see (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009c, np link).

[Interviewee:] You would never know that until someone said it like you did (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009a, np link).

[Kirsch:] Do most people know where these weapons go, do you think? Or what do they talk about? [Interviewee 1:] I don’t have a clue. I really don’t. They don’t tell us much. [Interviewee 2:] They make the artillery shells and out they go, but nobody really asks (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009a, np link).

[Kirsch’s voiceover:] Americans in Pine Bluff … view images they say they’ve never seen before of Gaza civilians burned by white phosphorus munitions fired by the Israeli military; munitions manufactured here in their community at this US Army Arsenal (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009c, np link).

[Kirsch’s voiceover:] Pine Bluff resident Thomas Young viewed [some of these] images … [on a laptop]. [Young, responding:] Oh my God. I hope they’re able to do some plastic surgery on her (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009d, np link).

[Other residents looking at the images:] Oh, that’s bad. [Young showing them to a young woman on a laptop:] This is Gaza City. [Woman:] Oh, those poor people (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009c, np link).

[Kirsch:] Do people here think about where those weapons are being used or who they’re being used on? [Young:] No. I think about the only thing they think about is deer hunting, turkey hunting and fishing (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009d, np link).

[Kirsch’s voiceover:] Arkansans like retired army veteran Robert Johnston [participating in an anti-war protest in the town] say some people here are more aware than others about developments in Gaza. [Johnston holding up a photo:] Here’s a picture of a 10-year-old boy who had his eyesight taken away and his face burned off. So that that seems … to me to be a war crime or certainly on the verge of it. What’s happening in Gaza is terribly sad and it is doubly sad that the United States in some ways has contributed to that. [Kirsch:] A contribution to Israel’s war effort in Gaza that few here contemplate. [Interviewee:] It doesn’t make you feel good. I mean, I understand [Israel] defending the country but not in that terms (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009a, np link).

[Kirsch’s voiceover:] Other folks, here, like retired County Judge Jack Jones say Israel is only defending itself. [Jones:] Some of the people in that Gaza Strip that are Al-Qaeda and what, whatever, uh, Hamas. They wheel these people, these kids, and everybody else out in front of them and them as a shield even. They want pictures like this going around the world to try to get sympathy for them and their cause (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009c, np link).

[Kirsch’s voiceover:] College student Terra Jones says the weapons should simply not be produced. [Jones:] It makes me think that we shouldn’t be making anything that would do that to people. I think that’s ridiculous. Like, why, why would you want to hurt anybody like that (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009c, np link)?

[Interviewee:] People that I know are just working there [at the Arsenal]. They just work there and they don’t know that this goes on. [Kirsch to camera outside the Arsenal gates:] … [We] talk[ed] with several employees off camera who said they cannot be held responsible for how weapons made here are used by the Israeli military. Other Arsenal workers we talked to didn’t want to hear about white phosphorus victims in Gaza. [Kirsch approaches a group of men in a car park:] Anybody here work over at the Arsenal? Nobody? You work at the Arsenal, sir? … You know the white phosphorus weapons have been burning these kids, huh? [Man:] [inaubible], Nah. [Kirsch:] Can you look at these pictures? You work over at the Arsenal? [Kirsch to another man in a pickup truck:] White phosphorus is, as you probably know, is a burning agent and when it gets on the skin, as it has with civilians, it’s burning the civilians over there. [The man winds up his pick-up window]. [Man in a gas station:] I mean the community is supported by the Arsenal you know. I mean half my family works out there. So, I mean, it’s bad that it’s happening but I mean, like, I’ve got an uncle that’s just doing his job, you know, and he works in the white phosphorus plant (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009c, np link).

[Kirsch:] Officials at the Pine Bluff Arsenal declined to discuss the details of the munitions on camera. The facility which was built in World War 2 has been a depot for US-made chemical weapons. More recently it has also begun destroying chemical weapons stored there that contain nerve agents and mustard gas (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009a, np link).

[Kirsch’s voiceover:] Local mayor James Morgan says what’s happening in Gaza is not going to make people here quit their jobs at the Arsenal. [Morgan:] Nobody wants anybody to get hurt, but that is, that’s jobs that’s been going on out there for years. Like I say, it didn’t just start (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009a, np link).

[Kirsch’s voiceover:] We brought the images to the office of Pine Bluff mayor Carl Redus Jr. He told us he didn’t have time to look at them and for us to come back another time. Residents here say city leaders don’t tell them much about what goes on with weapons produced at the Arsenal. … [Later, w]e caught up again with [the] mayor … He said the Arsenal is a federal facility and what goes on there is a federal matter, not his responsibility. As for him looking at our images of white phosphorus victims from Gaza, he declined … saying it won’t change things (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009c, np link).

[News presenter:] Israel’s conduct during the war is the subject of an incriminating report from Human Rights Watch. It states that the unlawful use of white phosphorus was neither incidental nor accidental and indicates the commission of war crimes (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009c, np link).

[Kirsch’s voiceover:] We caught up [again] with [Carl Redus] the town’s mayor just as [this] Human Rights Watch report … was released [Reading a news story on his phone to Redus] citing Israel’s use of white phosphorus as evidence of war crimes. The group said the army knew the munitions threatened the civilian population but deliberately and recklessly continued to use them. [Redus:] Weapons that are used in the conflict of war are just that, are part of the war. Where they are produced really doesn’t matter. [Kirsch:] It doesn’t bother you? [Redus:] Well, not that it doesn’t bother me, but it doesn’t matter where they are produced. What really bothers me … is the fact that a conflict that’s been going on for ages can’t be resolved. So I think that has more, you know, concern with me and and citizens of this community than anything else does. [Kirsch:] The mayor says the Arsenal is manufacturing weapons legally and plays a vital role in the economy here, employing more than 2,000 people and that the city of Pine Bluff has no control over how munitions produced at this Federal facility are used (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009d, np link).

[Kirsch:] Arsenal officials … have not yet commented on the human rights report (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009d, np link).

[Journalist:] Do you feel that the use of white phosphorus was legitimate during this campaign? [Daniel Reisner, Israeli Army’s former legal adviser:] If I talk about white phosphorus specifically, there are two different standard applications in armies for white phosphorus. You have white phosphorus shells which are used for marking and lighting which are actually strips of cloth which are dipped in white phosphorus and are used as lighting shells. And you have white phosphorus attack shells which are actually a military weapon. I have no idea which of these are claimed to have been used in Gaza. I know the IDF has the lighting shells. I don’t know if they were the ones used. [Journalist:] But beyond the actual weapon itself the, the method of use, um, using these weapons in densely populated areas where inevitably there are going to be lots of civilians who can be affected and were affected by these weapons. [Reisner:] First of all, white phosphorus is a legitimate weapon in warfare. In spite of the fact that it looks bad, I must tell you that there are a lot of weapons which do more harm which are also allowed. [Journalist:] But it’s not just a question of whether the weapon is allowed, but also the rules of engagement, the use of that weapon. [Reisner:] There are several questions. You have to ask, first of all, is the weapon legitimate? Secondly, what were you aiming at? If you were using a legitimate weapon, you must use it at a legitimate target. The third question is, when firing a lawful weapon at a lawful target, did you take enough care to minimize collateral damage to innocent civilians? Now the questions about white phosphorus apparently all fall within the third category. I assume that they were using a legitimate weapon attacking a legitimate target if they were using it in an attack mode. And the question was, did they take enough care when using this weapon to make sure that it didn’t cause collateral damage (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009e, np link)?

[Sabah, a Palestinian woman visiting a clinic with burns to her skin, through a translator:] I was burned from head to toe. My face, my legs and my back were burnt. I’m still in pain. I haven’t recovered yet. I massage my arm where they operated but it’s still stiff. I can’t even pick up a cup of tea now. My life will never be the same. [Journalist:] Sabah and her family live in a rural community in the north of Gaza on the border with Israel. Hers was a simple existence that revolved around her family. [Translater:] We had a happy home. I lived in this house with my husband and children and we were safe. I was the happiest person in the world. 16 people living in this house happily together. It was heaven. [Journalist:] But all of that changed when on the 4th of January the Israeli Army entered their Village… under the cover of a white phosphorous smoke screen. [Sabah through a translater:] At first I saw the white phosphorus shells. They fired them here nearby over the farmland. My daughter-in-law called me over and said ‘look at what the Israelis are doing’. We thought they were celebrating. We were on the balcony and saw it land in the fields. 15 minutes later they dropped it on us. It fell through the roof. They were like ropes, like the tentacles of an octopus that spread everywhere killing and burning anything they came in contact with (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009e, np link).

[Daniel Reisner, Israeli Army’s former legal adviser:] You have white phosphorus shells which are used for marking and lighting which are actually strips of cloth which are dipped in white phosphorus and are used as lighting shells (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009e, np link).

[Journalist:] The shell took the lives of five members of Sabah’s family: her husband and four of her children, including her youngest daughter Shahad who was one year and 3 months old. Her other two sons, Yousef and Ali, narrowly escaped. [Yousef talks, through a translator:] I was in a lot of pain. We were all crying – me Ahmed, Omar and Ali – when he came downstairs, he couldn’t breathe or speak. We tried to save my father and Ahmed but we couldn’t. They were on fire. My brother Ali was sitting alone in Ahmed’s room when the phosphorus fell on his head, and burned here and behind his ears here. [Journalist:] The war has changed the life of Sabah’s 18-year-old son Omar. He has dropped out of school and now works with his older brothers on their small plot of land. … [Omar:] We used to depend on my father and now we only rely on my brother to do the work. So, yes, I can go to school but psychologically I am tired. I am worn out. I can’t open my books because of what I saw. My father died in front of me. My brothers and sisters died and I had to drag them out of the flames. Before, I used to come home and talk to my brothers and joke with them. I used to joke with my sister and father. Now I have no one to speak to. There is only my mother. We have to calm her down. When we sit together to eat there are only five children. I start to cry and I worry that the children that survived will be upset. I try to stop myself, but I can’t. The loss of her only daughter Shahad who died in her arms has been the hardest to bear. We loved each other we all looked after Shahad. We used to always buy her biscuits and potato chips. I really loved her. When Shahad died, I lost it. My only sister died. I lost my mind. I hate to see young children now. I can’t stand to see them. When your only sister dies, you lose your mind. [Sabah:] Everything has changed. I feel lost. I don’t know where to go. My house is destroyed. My husband has died. My children have died. All the happiness is gone (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009e, np link).

[Daniel Reisner, Israeli Army’s former legal adviser:] Now I do understand that the IDF has launched an investigation on the allegations of the use of white phosphorus. And I’m actually eagerly anticipating the results of that investigation because so far the IDF has come up with very, let’s say, very clear results from its investigation including admitting fault when it found that it has done something wrong. So I think we should wait to see what the results of the innvestigation are and then understand better what happened as the war on Gaza (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009e np link).

[Kirsch:] Human Rights Watch says it is also now urging the United States government to launch its own investigation on how white phosphorus munitions produced here at the Pine Bluff Arsenal were used by the Israeli military against civilians (Source: Al Jazeera English 2009d, np link).

Even if the burned tissues are medically removed, the phosphorus is still absorbed into the blood stream and poisons internal organs … (Source: Anon 2013, np link).

… [and t]he smoke it emits is noxious to breathe. The fatality rate of even minor burns from white phosphorus is high, and injuries associated with the substance are painful and can become worse over time, especially without medical attention (Source: Lenow 2023, np link).

Originally named the Chemical Warfare Arsenal, the Pine Bluff Arsenal was established in 1941. At one time it was home to a network of facilities and laboratories that developed, tested, and stored chemical and biological weapons. After the U.S. acceded to an international arms control treaty on chemical weapons in 1997, it committed to destroying and stopping production of most of its chemical weapons (Source: Lenow 2023, np link).

The IDF used white phosphorus munitions in ‘Operation Cast Lead,’ the Israeli offensive in Gaza in 2008 and 2009 (Source: Lenow 2023, np link).

On 16 August 2007, the US and Israeli governments signed a 10-year agreement for the provision of $30 billion in US military aid. Full details of the package were not disclosed; however, it is reported to include a new generation of F-35 fighter jets, advanced bombs, and laser-guided missiles. This military aid package, amounting to $3 billion per year, represented a 25 percent increase of the US annual military aid appropriation to Israel of $2.4 billion. Israel was already the largest recipient in the world of US military aid before the proposed increase. Even after the start of the current conflict and reports of serious violations of international humanitarian law by the IDF in Gaza, the US authorities continued to authorize large consignments of US munitions, including white phosphorus munitions, to Israel (Source: Amnesty International 2009, p.20 link).

Since early December 2008, the US Military Sealift Command has been organizing three large deliveries by sea of military ammunition and high explosives, including explosives with white phosphorus, from the US base at Sunny Hill, North Carolina, to an Israeli port near Gaza. … On 31 December 2008, just four days after the start of Israel’s attacks on targets in Gaza, a second request was issued by the US Military Sealift Command for a ship to transport two further shipments of ammunition from Astakos in Greece to Ashdod, Israel. These shipments were to comprise 157 and 168 standard shipping containers of ammunition with a net explosive weight of nearly 1 million lbs. The ‘Hazard Codes’ of the cargo indicate that the cargo would include articles containing white phosphorus (Source: Amnesty International 2009, p.31-2 link).

According to a U.S. Army document cataloging types of ammunition, each [white phosphorus artillery] shell contains 116 felt wedges soaked with white phosphorus. After being fired into the air, a charge within the shell disburses the wedges, which then ignite upon contact with the air and generate thick, white smoke that flows downward as they fall to the ground. When deployed by an artillery weapon, such as a howitzer, they can cover an area as large as a football field (Source: Lenow 2023, np link).

White phosphorus munitions are not outright prohibited by international humanitarian law, but their use is limited to specific situations. Militaries are supposed to use white phosphorus only as a means of illuminating the battlefield, providing a smokescreen for military troops on the ground and signaling targets – not as a weapon. Because it is so highly flammable, white phosphorus is subject to Protocol III of the Geneva Conventions, which prohibits the use of incendiary weapons against civilian targets and the use of air-delivered incendiary weapons in densely populated civilian areas (Source: Lenow 2023, np link).

During the three-week military campaign Israeli forces made extensive use of artillery including 155mm white phosphorus shells … in residential areas, causing death and injuries to civilians. Homes, schools, medical facilities and UN buildings – all civilian objects – took direct hits from Israeli artillery shelling. Artillery shells are for use on conventional battlefields and are not capable of pinpoint targeting. Yet in Gaza they were fired into densely-populated civilian residential areas. In an UNRWA [UN Relief and Works Agency] primary school in Beit Lahia, where 1,600 people were sheltering from the fighting, an artillery carrier shell hit a classroom on the second floor where 35 people were sleeping at 6am on 17 January. Two brothers, aged five and seven, were killed and 14 others were injured, including the boys’ mother, whose leg had to be amputated. Two days after the incident Amnesty International delegates found remains of 155 mm white phosphorus artillery shells and still smouldering remains of white phosphorus at the school (Source: Amnesty International 2009, p.10 link).

The main UN compound in Gaza was left in flames today after being struck by Israeli artillery fire, and a spokesman said that the building had been hit by shells containing the incendiary agent white phosphorus (Source: Frenkel & Naughton 2009, np link).

[UNWRA spokesperson Chris] Gunness … said that the building had been used to shelter hundreds of people fleeing Israel’s 20-day offensive in Gaza. He said that pallets with supplies desperately needed by Palestinians in Gaza were on fire (Source: Frenkel & Naughton 2009, np link).

According to … Gunness … he could not be sure that white phosphorus had been used, but added, ‘According to our international staff members, who were eyewitnesses, it looks like phosphorus, it smells like phosphorus and it burns like phosphorus’ (Source: Julian 2009, np link).

‘What more stark symbolism do you need?’ he said. ‘You can’t put out white phosphorus with traditional methods such as fire extinguishers. You need sand, we don’t have sand’ (Source: Frenkel & Naughton 2009, np link).

The attack on the UN compound came as Israeli forces pushed deeper into Gaza City and unleashed their heaviest shelling on its crowded neighbourhoods in three weeks of war. At least 15 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli attacks, medical officials said, pushing the death toll up towards 1,100 (Source: Frenkel & Naughton 2009, np link).

The attack on the headquarters of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) came as Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, arrived in Israel on a peace mission and plunged Israel’s relations with the world body to a new low. Mr Ban expressed his ‘strong protest and outrage’ at the shelling and demanded an investigation, only to be told by apologetic Israeli leaders that their forces had been returning fire from within the UN compound. ‘The Israeli forces were attacked from there and their response was severe,’ Ehud Olmert, the Prime Minister, told the UN chief, according to a statement released by his office (Source: Frenkel & Naughton 2009, np link).

[A]n IDF spokesman denied the use of phosphorus and said that Israel was using only the weapons that were allowed under international law (Source: Evans & Frenkel 2009, np link).

The Times reported on Monday that the [Israel Defence Forces] appeared to be firing WP [white phosphorus] shells to create a thick smoke camouflage for units advancing into Gaza (Source: Evans & Frenkel 2009, np link).

Artillery experts said that [they] would be in trouble if they were banned from using WP because it is the simplest way of creating smoke to protect them from enemy fire (Source: Evans & Frenkel 2009, np link).

[R]esearchers from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, who have spent the past three weeks in the Gaza Strip, have concluded with certainty that the white phosphorus bombs struck residential neighborhoods… (Source: Hass 2009, np link).

… in and around Gaza City, and in the north and south of the Gaza Strip (Source: Amnesty International 2009, p.12 link).

In the aftermath of the 22-day war, … [they] found white phosphorus wedges – often still burning – … (Source: Lenow 2023, np link).

… in residential areas throughout Gaza days after the ceasefire came into effect on 18 January – that is, up to three weeks after the white phosphorus artillery shells had been fired by Israeli forces (Source: Amnesty International 2009, p.12 link).

[Israeli newspaper] Haaretz visited a number of homes in the Gaza Strip that show clear signs of being hit by phosphorus shells (Source: Hass 2009, np link).

Amnesty International … conducted numerous interviews with civilians who witnessed and/or suffered injuries from white phosphorus (Source: Lenow 2023, np link).

In Khuzaa, east of Khan Younis, in the south of Gaza, Amnesty International delegates found white phosphorus artillery carrier shells, both whole and in fragments, in several homes in densely-populated residential area. In one home, they found the fragments of another 155mm artillery carrier shell which had killed 47-year-old Hanan al-Najjar, a mother of four. She and her family had fled their home and were staying with relatives in a residential area well inside the town. On the evening of 10 January an artillery shell penetrated the roof of the house and travelled through two rooms, breaking up in the hall, where a large fragment hit Hanan in the chest, almost severing the upper part of her body. She was killed instantly (Source: Amnesty International 2009, p.13 link).

In another instance, four children and the father died as a result of a white phosphorus bombing (Source: Hass 2009, np link).

A 16-year-old girl, Samia Salman Al-Manay’a, was asleep in her home in the Jabalia refugee camp, north of Gaza City, when a phosphorus shell landed on the first floor of the house at 8pm on 10 January. Ten days later, from her hospital bed, she told Amnesty International that she was still experiencing intense pain due to the burns to her face and legs. ‘The pain is piercing. It’s as though a fire is burning in my body. It’s too much for me to bear. In spite of all the medicine they are giving me the pain is still so strong’ (Source: Amnesty International 2009, p.10 link).

Hassan Khalass, a doctor at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, told The Times that he had been dealing with patients who he suspected had been burnt by white phosphorus (Source: Evans & Frenkel 2009, np link).

Nafez Abu Shaban, the head of the burns unit at al-Shifa hospital, said: ‘I am not familiar with phosphorus but many of the patients wounded in the past weeks have strange burns. They are very deep and not like burns we used to see’ (Source: Evans & Frenkel 2009, np link).

The initial treatment of the burns, before the doctors in the Gaza Strip had realized that they were caused by white phosphorus, was deemed useless. ‘We had never seen phosphorus burns before,’ a veteran foreign surgeon told [the Israeli newspaper] Haaretz (Source: Hass 2009, np link).

Muhammad Azayzeh, 28, an emergency medical technician in the city, said: ‘The burns are very unusual. They don’t look like burns we have normally seen. They are third-level burns that we can’t seem to control.’ Victims with embedded WP particles in their flesh have to have the affected areas flushed with water. Particles that cannot be removed with tweezers are covered with a saline-soaked dressing (Source: Evans & Frenkel 2009, np link).

Two weeks after being injured, the burn victims seemed to be getting worse, requiring skin grafts abroad. In other instances, internal tissue was also destroyed. Some of the wounded died a week to 10 days after being injured, even though they had not appeared to suffer extensive injuries. The doctors only later discovered that their liver and kidneys had been affected. But at this point, it was already too late to save many of the wounded. The precise number of those who suffered burn wounds and then died is still uncertain. Doctors take care to note that until the necessary laboratory work is done, they will be unable to determine with certainty if the burns were caused by the white phosphorus bombs the IDF dropped during its ground offensive in the Gaza Strip. They are also unable to state with certainty whether the patients’ deterioration and the spread of infection stemmed directly from being hit with the phosphorus mortars (Source: Hass 2009, np link).

‘In the [medical] literature, what is known about these burns is what was done as experiments, in lab conditions, or in military bases, perhaps as the result of accidents.’ However, three Israeli documents Haaretz received, which were written during Operation [Cast] Lead … , describe the sort of burns caused by white phosphorus and match the descriptions of the medical personnel in the Gaza Strip. The documents were prepared by the office of the IDF chief medical officer, the Medical Field Operations HQ and Magen David Adom. A document bearing the signature of Dr. Zvi Feinberg, chief of medicine at Magen David Adom, and Rami Miller, a senior paramedic, writes that ‘white phosphorus contained in a bomb or a missile ignites when it comes into contact with oxygen … the phosphorus that comes into contact with skin causes serious and deep burns.’ Another document, this one signed by Dr. Gil Hirschorn, who is also a colonel in the army and head of trauma in the office of the IDF’s chief medical officer, states: ‘During Operation Cast Lead, intelligence was received that Hamas was making use of an ordinance that contains phosphorus. … When the phosphorus comes in contact with living tissue it causes its damage by ‘eating’ away at it. Characteristics of a phosphorus wound are: chemical burns accompanied by extreme pain, damage to tissue … the phosphorus may seep into the body and damage internal organs. In the long run, kidney failure and the spread of infection are characteristic … In conclusion: a wound by an ordinance containing explosive phosphorus is inherently dangerous and has the potential to cause serious damage to tissue.’ A document entitled ‘Exposure to White Phosphorus,’ prepared by Medical Field Operations HQ and sent from the Health Ministry notes that ‘most of the data on phosphorus wounds stems from animal testing and accidents. Exposure to white phosphorus is highly poisonous, according to many lab experiments. Burns covering a small area of the body, 12-15 percent in lab animals and less than 10 percent in humans, may be lethal as a result of its effects, mostly on the liver, heart and kidneys’ (Source: Hass 2009, np link).

Photographic evidence has emerged that proves that Israel has been using controversial white phosphorus shells during its offensive in Gaza, despite official denials by the Israel Defence Forces (Source: Evans & Frenkel 2009, np link).

Amnesty International came across many white phosphorus 155mm artillery carrier shells throughout Gaza with markings M825 A1 – a US-made munition (Source: Amnesty International 2009, p.10 link).

Another picture showed the same munitions stacked up behind an Israeli self-propelled howitzer (Source: Evans & Frenkel 2009, np link).

The Times has identified stockpiles of white phosphorus (WP) shells from high-resolution images taken of Israel Defence Forces (IDF) artillery units on the Israeli-Gaza border this week. The pale blue 155mm rounds are clearly marked with the designation M825A1, an American-made WP munition (Source: Evans & Frenkel 2009, np link).

[The] Reuters news agency photographed an IDF artillery unit in Israel near Gaza handling M825A1 projectiles on January 4, 2009 with the lot number PB-91J011-002A, indicating that these shells were produced in the United States at the Pine Bluff Arsenal in September 1991 (Source: Human Rights Watch 2009, np link).

Amnesty International delegates who visited the … UNRWA field operations headquarters [attacked by the IDF] in Gaza City … found the marking PB-91K018-035 on the fragments of one of the artillery shells which is the lot number and indicates that they were assembled by Pine Bluff Arsenal (PB) in 1991 (91) in October (K) (Source: Amnesty International 2009, p.11 link).

Confronted with the latest evidence, an IDF spokeswoman insisted that the M825A1 shell was not a WP type. ‘This is what we call a quiet shell – it is empty, it has no explosives and no white phosphorus. There is nothing inside it,’ she said. ‘We shoot it to mark the target before we launch a real shell. We launch two or three of the quiet shells which are empty so that the real shells will be accurate. It’s not for killing people,’ she said (Source: Evans & Frenkel 2009, np link).

The IDF initially denied using white phosphorus during Operation Cast Lead; it later admitted to using the munitions but said it had done so within the bounds of international law (Source: Lenow 2023, np link).

Marc Galasco, of Human Rights Watch, said: ‘Recognising the significant incidental incendiary effect that white phosphorus creates, there is great concern that Israel is failing to take all feasible steps to avoid civilian loss of life and property by using WP in densely populated urban areas. This concern is amplified given the technique evidenced in media photographs of air-bursting WP projectiles at relatively low levels, seemingly to maximise its incendiary effect’ (Source: Evans & Frenkel 2009, np link).

[News presenter:] We’re now joined by Fred Abrams who was on the ground in Gaza just after the Israeli Army pulled out [of Gaza] and co-authored the [Human Rights Watch] report. He’s the senior emergencies researcher with Human Rights Watch. … How convinced are you that Israel committed war crimes during the War on Gaza? [Abrahams:] Uh, in my view it’s indisputable. We spent the time on the ground doing the research, uh, speaking with multiple witnesses and visiting the site and it’s the ballistics evidence that’s very powerful for us. We found the white phosphorus shells. We found the canisters. We found the, uh, the wedges which were still burning in some places up to a week after. And we found them not just in open areas, which is a legal use, but in residential areas. They hit the Al-Quds hospital. Uh, they hit the UN School in Beit Lahia. They hit the UNWRA compound, the main UN headquarters, in the center of Gaza City. And what’s very interesting is that there were no Israeli forces on the ground at that time. So using [white phosphorus] for a smoke screen is very questionable to us if there were no troops there that needed protection (Source: Al Jazeera 2009e, np link).

Amnesty International considers that the repeated use of white phosphorus in this way in densely-populated civilian areas constitutes a form of indiscriminate attack, and amounts to a war crime (Source: Amnesty International 2009, p.10-13 link).

[Presenter:] [In response, the] Israeli Army says, and I quote: ‘the claim that smoke shells were used indiscriminately or to threaten the civilian population is baseless.’ Essentially they’re saying that you’re lying. [Human Rights Watch’s Fred Abrahams:] Well, uh, I have a hard time taking the Israeli position on this seriously because, during the conflict, uh, they denied that white phosphorus was even being used. And then, uh, when faced with the facts, they retreated to say that all weapons they use are with, in compliance with international law. Now they claim that they are going to investigate. So they don’t have a good track record on on speaking openly about this issue. Um, you know, the evidence is overwhelming, um, and what’s very important to know is the military knew very well what white phosphorus can do. They’ve used it before in Lebanon and they had an alternative there are other smoke shells that do not have the same incendiary effect. So they could have used these less dangerous smoke munitions for the same military advantage without the same harm to civilians. When you have those alternatives and you fail to use them, for us, that all adds up, uh, to a criminal liability (Source: Al Jazeera 2009e, np link).

[Presenter:] [Your] report calls for accountability and, uh, an international investigation. How is that going to happen? Because, from what I was able to tally, Human Rights Watch has issued at least 24 reports condemning Israeli action in the Occupied Territories and in Lebanon since 1991. With that in mind we haven’t seen any accountability or change have we? [Abrahams:] In my view, uh, the IDF, the Israeli military, has been infected by a culture of impunity and we understand it will be very difficult to break that culture. Uh, that’s why we want to see an international investigation. It should be from the United Nations. It should look at both sides – not just Israeli abuses but also by Hamas and other other groups – and, uh, they will, uh, hopefully lead us in the direction of some accountability. It’s extremely important, specifically now, because of the indictment against Sudanese president Al Bashir. We have the danger of a selective justice here where there’s so much attention and an indictment on that case but inaction and impunity, uh, for these serious violations, these war crimes, committed in Gaza. And, uh, that’s why, not only for the civilians of Gaza, the citizens of Gaza, but also around the region and the world there must be a depoliticized implementation of justice and the rule of law (Source: Al Jazeera 2009e, np link).

The record on the uses of white phosphorus is pretty clear: the US used it as a weapon in Fallujah. This is forbidden. Now, Israel uses it as a weapon in Gaza – with aid from the US (Source: mafrick40205 2010, np link).

It is not legal to use WP [white phosphorus] in civilian areas where it will cause unnecessary harm to civilians. It is very clear there was no threat when the israelis used WP directly against civilians and only against civilians (Source: brumbar162 2011, np link).

I understand how tempting it is to make up facts to fit your arguments, but I urge you to stop giving in to that temptation! Israel didn’t use [white phosphorus] against civilians, and if you claim it did, you’d better have proof to back that up. Even HRW [Human Rights Watch], whose biases are obvious to anyone with half a brain, admitted Israel was using WP for its illuminating and smoke-creating effects. How does [its] status as an independent organization prove its honesty & impartiality (Source: yofic 2011, np link)?

You’re just another israeli propagandist. WP is illegal to use against civilians as defined by the UN. Your arguments are nonsense designed to mislead the public. Fred Abrahams, a senior Human Rights Watch researcher. ‘It fired white phosphorus repeatedly over densely populated areas, even when its troops weren’t in the area and safe smoke shells were available. As a result, civilians needlessly suffered and died.’ All israelis are war criminals (Source: brumbar162 2011, np link)!

No one said it was legal to use WP against civilians. It IS legal to use WP in civilian areas. Don’t bring me pathetic accusations from Human Rights Watch. … HRW has long lost its credibility (Source: yofic 2011, np link).

It is israel that has long lost it’s ‘credibility’ – no one believes israel or its propagandists … Human Rights Watch is an independent organisation. The reason you attack it is because they refuse to follow israeli propaganda. You’re a Nazi joke (Source: brumbar162 2011, np link)!

Don’t be a d*ck [yofic]. I answered a question that you asked. If you only care about war crimes in 1 place – although I can’t see why you would – there are videos on this very site [YouTube] of israel using airburst WP rounds. You’re blinkering yourself and trying to change your argument ad hoc to keep on the right side of the facts as they become apparent to you (Source: bigveasy 2011, np link).

Nope. I’m pretty sure the question was: ‘Show me one legal source … that prohibits WP in civilian areas.’ So the question was about prohibitions, not regulations, and WP generally, not WP weapons – words that have colossal legal implications. As for air-bursts – once again, legal if used in certain ways. Let’s do that logic thing again – How does focusing on false accusations against Israel … imply that I don’t care about war crimes around the world (Source: yofic 2011, np link)?

I guess people focus on what they want to focus on, and believe what they want to believe. ‘You need not respond.’ – Yofic (Source: bigveasy 2011, np link).

Saddam Hussain use chemical weapon against Kurdes, that’s why he was punished by the people. When Israeli Govt. do same things who will punish them for this mass murder (Source: MonsterIsrael 2010, np link)?

israel is making a genocide on palestinian people, who doest admit that is blind or hypocrite, israhell must be punished for its crimes, that’s enough (Source: princesss690 2010, np link)!

they are paranoid about their security n that is understandable in many ways their behavior is NOT understandable or acceptable to most people on this earth (Source: polygamous1 2009, np link).

We know who are the real terrorists and war criminals. They occupy and claim they are defending themselves. We all see the hypocrisy over the past 60 years as settlers from Europe DO ONTO OTHERS WHAT WAS DONE TO THEM! Shame on Israel! No matter what fabrications you spin, we all know the truth. Israel kills and detains journalists what are they trying to hide? We shall not be deluded by your propaganda. Peace & Independence to Palestine (Source: OnlyTruthPatriot 2010, np link)!

People do not need to fire a single bullet to bring Israel to its knees. If everyone simply stopped purchashing any products from Israel and America they would soon find changes in attitudes, especially in these difficult financial times [see our page on the Ahava Stolen Beauty campaign as an example] (Source: londonukm 2010, np link).

UN resolution 242 calls for Israel to return the land they illegally stole from the Palestinians, to dismantle illegal settlements, and to withdraw to their original borders. Hamas has hinted that they would accept this. And most of the other arab governments have said that if Israel does this, they will recognize them and make peace with them (Source: OnlyTruthPatriot 2009, np link).

The employees of the armory featured in this piece are complicitous in globally recognized human rights abuses, at least insofar as they understand what it is that they’re engaged in manufacturing (Source: mafrick40205 2010, np link).

i’m sorry, but… you’re full of sh*t (Source: SymAmineC8H11N 2010, np link).

The people in Pine Bluff are not to blame for the use of white phosphorous in Gaza, they are doing their job no matter how unethical it may be (Source: uru86 2011, np link).

even if that arsenal didn’t exist they would still be manufacturing the shells some were else (Source: logisist 2010, np link).

The real people who should be held accountable are those in the corporate HQ who profit from the manufacture and sale of the weapon, and Israel who uses it in such a indiscriminate way. Although, I certainly think it is important to expose to the population of Pine Bluff and the US in general what their ‘aid’ goes to (Source: uru86 2011, np link).

I love the smell of White Phosphorous in the morning … smells like victory (Source: HerculesRockefellerr 2010, np link)!!!!

i live literally right down the street form the arsenal too :)))) (Source: jsprink30 2011, np link).

hey idiots they destroy old bombs and war chemicals in that arsenal they don’t make them (Source: logisist 2011, np link).

I’m starting to think that Americans are really idiots, not only on the comedy movies. Those comedies are indeed documentaries about American society (Source: taurusak72 2009, np link).

you should thank your God that you were not born in Gaza (Source: ummerashdan 2000, np link).

Comments disabled on this video (Source: Al Jazeera English 2012a, np link).

Comments are disabled for this video (Source: Al Jazeera 2012fb np link).

Comments disabled on this video (Source: Al Jazeera English 2016, np link).

Is there a reason we’re not allowed to comment on Al Jazeera’s newer videos (Source: angelicasoulz 2009, np link)?

I have no idea (Source: P47RICK 2009, np link).

DHEIRA, Lebanon — Israel used U.S.-supplied white phosphorus munitions in an October attack in southern Lebanon that injured at least nine civilians in what a rights group says should be investigated as a war crime, according to a Washington Post analysis of shell fragments found in a small village (Source: Christou, Horton & Kelly 2023, np link). 

The reporting team … uncovered three 155-millimeter artillery rounds fired into the Lebanon border town of Dheira (Source: Arria 2023, np link).

At least one of the shells found by The Post in Dheira was from the same batch of white phosphorus used by Israel in 2009, according to lot production codes (Source: Christou, Horton & Kelly 2023, np link).

[Image caption] Left: One of two remnants of white phosphorus smoke rounds found in Dheira. Their lot production codes begin with ‘PB-92,’ which denotes production in Pine Bluff, Ark., in 1992 (Source: Christou, Horton & Kelly 2023, np link).  

An October [2023] report from Amnesty International shows photographs of white phosphorus munitions that were seemingly produced at the Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas (Source: Arria 2023, np link).

The United States government supplies Israel with over $3.8 billion in weapons annually and President Biden has been pushing for billions more since the October 7th Hamas attack (Source: Arria 2023, np link).

White phosphorus is not a chemical weapon under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), but the World Health Organization considers it a potential violation of international law to use it against people in a civilian setting. ‘To establish an illegal use under the CCCW, an investigation into the intent behind the use of white phosphorus would be needed, which exceeds the mandate of WHO,’ notes the organization’s website (Source: Arria 2023, np link).

Amnesty International investigator Brian Castner told the [Arkansas Times] that his organization ‘verified several videos that almost certainly show that white phosphorus smoke projectiles were used in Gaza,’ but noted that Israel appears to have switched to other kinds of smoke rounds … (Source: Arria 2023, np link).

… ‘which do not have the same incendiary issues’ since the incidents documented in early October [2023]. That’s ‘perhaps a tacit admission of the problematic nature, and potential unlawfulness, of using WP in a densely populated area,’ he said (Source: Lenow 2023, np link).

[T]he Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas [is] the only white phosphorus factory that’s still operating in North America (Source: Arria 2023, np link).

The last of the chemical weapons stored at the Pine Bluff Arsenal were destroyed in 2010. Today, the arsenal ‘serves a critical need for the domestic production of illuminating, infrared, phosphorus and smoke munitions,’ according to its website. ‘It serves as the group technology center for illuminating and infrared munitions and is also the only place in the Northern Hemisphere where white phosphorus munitions are filled’ (Source: Lenow 2023, np link).

Activists have protested outside the Pine Bluff Arsenal through the years, but the company has never responded to inquiries about the issue. One Arkansas-based protestor told Mondoweiss that the arsenal has a very small staff and that jobs are hard to come by in the area, making it nearly impossible to compile further information (Source: Arria 2023, np link).

[A]s is often the case with accusations of war crimes, it is difficult to gather accurate information until after fighting has completely stopped (Source: Lenow 2023, np link).