[DEBATE] : UK Times - Israel rains fire on Gaza with phosphorus shells

[Miles Teg]

The Times
December 5, 2008
Israel rains fire on Gaza with phosphorus shells
Artillery shells explode above Gaza City

(Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty Images)

Israeli artillery shells explode with a chemical agent designed to 
create smokescreen for ground forces
Image :1 of 5
Sheera Frenkel in Jerusalem and Michael Evans, Defence Editor

Opinion: Michael Lerner | Brown calls for ceasefire | Europe split on 
response | Comment: James Bone | Israel splits Gaza | Doctors 
overwhelmed | Analysis: Colonel Lior Lotan | Leading article

Israel is believed to be using controversial white phosphorus shells to 
screen its assault on the heavily populated Gaza Strip yesterday. The 
weapon, used by British and US forces in Iraq, can cause horrific burns 
but is not illegal if used as a smokescreen.

As the Israeli army stormed to the edges of Gaza City and the 
Palestinian death toll topped 500, the tell-tale shells could be seen 
spreading tentacles of thick white smoke to cover the troops' advance. 
"These explosions are fantastic looking, and produce a great deal of 
smoke that blinds the enemy so that our forces can move in," said one 
Israeli security expert. Burning blobs of phosphorus would cause severe 
injuries to anyone caught beneath them and force would-be snipers or 
operators of remote-controlled booby traps to take cover. Israel 
admitted using white phosphorus during its 2006 war with Lebanon.

The use of the weapon in the Gaza Strip, one of the world's mostly 
densely population areas, is likely to ignite yet more controversy over 
Israel's offensive, in which more than 2,300 Palestinians have been wounded.
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The Geneva Treaty of 1980 stipulates that white phosphorus should not be 
used as a weapon of war in civilian areas, but there is no blanket ban 
under international law on its use as a smokescreen or for illumination. 
However, Charles Heyman, a military expert and former major in the 
British Army, said: "If white phosphorus was deliberately fired at a 
crowd of people someone would end up in The Hague. White phosphorus is 
also a terror weapon. The descending blobs of phosphorus will burn when 
in contact with skin."

The Israeli military last night denied using phosphorus, but refused to 
say what had been deployed. "Israel uses munitions that are allowed for 
under international law," said Captain Ishai David, spokesman for the 
Israel Defence Forces. "We are pressing ahead with the second stage of 
operations, entering troops in the Gaza Strip to seize areas from which 
rockets are being launched into Israel."

The civilian toll in the first 24 hours of the ground offensive — 
launched after a week of bombardment from air, land and sea— was at 
least 64 dead. Among those killed were five members of a family who died 
when an Israeli tank shell hit their car and a paramedic who died when a 
tank blasted his ambulance. Doctors at Gaza City's main hospital said 
many women and children were among the dead and wounded.

The Israeli army also suffered its first fatality of the offensive when 
one of its soldiers was killed by mortar fire. More than 30 soldiers 
were wounded by mortars, mines and sniper fire.

Israel has brushed aside calls for a ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid 
into the besieged territory, where medical supplies are running short.

With increasingly angry anti-Israeli protests spreading around the 
world, Gordon Brown described the violence in Gaza as "a dangerous moment".

White phosphorus: the smoke-screen chemical that can burn to the bone

— White phosphorus bursts into a deep-yellow flame when it is exposed to 
oxygen, producing a thick white smoke

— It is used as a smokescreen or for incendiary devices, but can also be 
deployed as an anti-personnel flame compound capable of causing 
potentially fatal burns

— Phosphorus burns are almost always second or third-degree because the 
particles do not stop burning on contact with skin until they have 
entirely disappeared — it is not unknown for them to reach the bone

— Geneva conventions ban the use of phosphorus as an offensive weapon 
against civilians, but its use as a smokescreen is not prohibited by 
international law

— Israel previously used white phosphorus during its war with Lebanon in 
2006

— It has been used frequently by British and US forces in recent wars, 
notably during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Its use was criticised widely

— White phosphorus has the slang name "Willy Pete", which dates from the 
First World War. It was commonly used in the Vietnam era

Source: Times archives

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5447590.ece?&EMC-Bltn=FGNE1A