Jan 22, 2009 12:22 AM

Israel Launches Phosphorus Weapons Probe Amid Cries of 'War Crimes'

JERUSALEM — For weeks, doctors in Gaza say, they’ve been treating patients with horrible, mysterious burns. Human rights groups blame the wounds on sometimes-incendiary white phosphorus munitions, dropped by the Israeli military on Gaza. After a long string of denials, the Israeli Defense Forces are now launching an investigation into the claims. At stake could […]

JERUSALEM -- For weeks, doctors in Gaza say, they've been treating patients with horrible, mysterious burns. Human rights groups blame the wounds on sometimes-incendiary white phosphorus munitions, dropped by the Israeli military on Gaza. After a long string of denials, the Israeli Defense Forces are now launching an investigation into the claims. At stake could be much more than Israel's already-battered international reputation. Some humanitarian organizations are talking about war crimes.

When exposed to oxygen, white phosphorus (WP) catches fire, throwing up thick clouds of smoke. Munitions made from the stuff can be used to create massive smokescreens-- that's the main function of Israel's (and America's) "M825A1" 155mm white phosphorus artillery rounds. In which case, the weapons are perfectly legal.

But WP can also burn people, quickly and horribly, as it sticks to the skin it singes. So firing phosphorus weapons carelessly in a civilian area, or deliberately targeting civilians, could step over the line. A steady stream of reports have showed civilians with what may be WP injuries.

Dr. Nafez Abu Shaban, head of the burn unit at Gaza City's Sifa Hospital, tells the New York Times that the wounds "were deeper and wider than anything I had seen; a bad odor came from the wounds and smoke continued to come out of them for many hours." He added, “We took out a piece of foreign matter that a colleague identified as white phosphorous.”

Artillery officer Col. Shai Alkalai is leading the Israeli Defense Forces probe to find out how it employed the munitions. According* Ha'aretz*, "the IDF used two phosphorus-based weapons in Gaza. The first is those 155mm shells, which only have "a trace of phosphorus to ignite them.*" *The other are either 81mm or 120mm phosphorus mortars. "About 200 such shells were fired during the recent fighting, and of these... almost 180 were fired at orchards in which gunmen and rocket-launching crews were taking cover."

These weapons are packed with WP-soaked felt wedges (weighing about twelve pounds). In some cases, those wedges can burn out, and then catch alight again. Which makes them particularly problematic, in densely-packed urban wastelands like Gaza. Israeli human rights group B'Tselem thinks that the munitions should be banned from such places, during future conflicts. Other organizations, like Amnesty International, go even further, calling the Israelis' use of WP a "war crime."

"Conditions in the Gaza Strip make it impossible to use in a legal sense," Sarit Michaeli, the group's communications director, tells Danger Room.

A weapons that could be considered legal in one context might be totally out-of-bounds in another, she adds. "If you fire it a Viet Cong fighters in a jungle, and you know there are no civilians in the area, fine. But you can't swing a cat in Gaza without hitting someone. There are 1.5 million Palestinians squeezed in there. How can you use such a weapon in a discriminating way?"

Even the Vietnam case is problematic. During that war, there were reports of WP burn victims suddenly dying the next day, even though they had received suffered burns only over 10% of their bodies. But getting burned by WP can also mean absorbing highly toxic phosphorus compounds. The cause of death turned out to be hypocalcaemia (low calcium in the blood), caused by phosphorus poisoning. "Mysterious" deaths of victims with 15% burns have been reported in Gaza, these have not yet been shown to be caused by WP.

Michaeli believes that the above picture -- and others taken by a B'Tselem investigator in Gaza -- show WP remnants, re-lighting.

Since the beginning of Gaza conflict, the Israel Defense Forces have been changing their story on WP in Gaza. Television footage appeared to show WP shells being used from the start. But an Israeli spokesman told CNN on January 7th, "I can tell you with certainty that white phosphorus is absolutely not being used."

Earlier this week, IDF advisors told Danger Room the same thing -- and then quickly retracted the statement. But that was before Col. Shai Alkalai launched his investigation.

*-- Noah Shachtman with David Hambling, in London
*

[PHOTO: B'Tselem]

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