White Phosphorus

The world has been quick to accept as fact, allegations that Israel has 'illegally' used white phosphorus in Gaza. In particular, Human Rights Watch has jumped on this bandwagon and condemned Israel for employing 'unlawful' methods and weapons. This charge was swiftly repeated by the Guardian, The Times, Christian Science Monitor and CNN.

Shame they didn't bother to do a bit of decent fact-checking first, isn't it?

The International Red Cross has openly stated there is no evidence to suggest that Israel has used white phosphorus in any manner that is unlawful.

As the AP reports:

"In some of the strikes in Gaza it's pretty clear that phosphorus was used," [Peter] Herby told The Associated Press. "But it's not very unusual to use phosphorus to create smoke or illuminate a target. We have no evidence to suggest it's being used in any other way."

Herby said that using phosphorus to illuminate a target or create smoke is legitimate under international law, and that there was no evidence the Jewish state was intentionally using phosphorus in a questionable way, such as burning down buildings or consciously putting civilians at risk.

And there's more, because white phosphorus has been used as a weapon against civilians during this conflict - by Hamas. On Tuesday a mortar shell fired from Gaza into Israel contained white phosphorus. As the regional council's security chief said: "the potential danger of using such a rocket is enormous. It is far more dangerous than other Qassam rockets and mortal shells. This is an escalation in the type of explosives the Palestinians use on civilians."

So will Human Rights Watch condemn this attack by Hamas, as swiftly and energetically as it wrongly condemned Israel? Call me cynical, but I'm guessing not. Feel free to share your concern over this bias by emailing your thoughts to hrwnyc@hrw.org.