The IDF has announced that it will no longer use white phosphorus as a smokescreen for military operations. The IDF came under sharp criticism for its use of white phosphorus during Operation Cast Lead during 2008-09, even though its use as a smokescreen is completely legal and it is so used by armies around the world.
Smokescreen artillery shells containing white
phosphorus "are to be removed from active duty soon" and replaced by
Israeli-developed alternatives "based completely on gas" around a year
from now, the IDF said, without giving details.
During the Gaza
fighting, Israel said troops fired mortar rounds with white phosphorus
warheads to clear brush around trenches used by Palestinian gunmen.
At
the time, Human Rights Watch said Israel appeared to be using white
phosphorus to hide military operations, as permitted in principle under
international humanitarian law.
"However, white phosphorus has a
significant, incidental, incendiary effect that can severely burn people
and set structures, fields, and other civilian objects in the vicinity
on fire," the New York-based organization said.
"The potential
for harm to civilians is magnified by Gaza's high population density,
among the highest in the world," it added, calling on the IDF to stop
using the munitions.
By the way, Gaza is not the most densely populated area in the world. In fact, it's not even close.
The 'human rights watch' complaint would never have been made against - or taken seriously by - any other country.
Bashar al-Assad's army is apparently using white phosphorus bombs on Syrian civilians, as seen in the video below, which was released by the Free Syrian Army. The helicopter involved - an Mi-24 Hind - is one used by the Syrian army. The use of white phosphorus bombs as an offensive weapon against a civilian population is a war crime, although the bombs' use is permitted for illumination and in areas where civilians are not present.
Stratfor explains, further, “A Syrian opposition activist said
helicopters flown by regime forces dropped phosphorous bombs on Dayr
al-Zawr, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported Dec. 7.”
White phosphorous is a brittle substance that burns extremely
brightly. Phosphorous bombs are not completely banned by international
law, because their use for illumination and, debatably, for intimidation
purposes, is allowed; but the weapon can also cause severe chemical
burns, harm victims with its vapor, and poison water or food supplies.
(That said, Syria is not signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention
regulating this, though almost every other nation in the world is.)
This potential use of chemical weapons comes after sporadic reports of
the regime’s use of cluster bombs, also banned by some international
treaties (though again, to which Syria is not party). Now, on Wednesday,
U.S. officials told NBC News that the regime has loaded the chemicals necessary to deploy sarin gas, a highly lethal chemical weapon, into bombs for use.
You might recall that during and after Israel's Operation Cast Lead, there was an uproar over the use of white phosphorus. At the time, I pointed to this explanation of why Israel's use of the chemical was permitted.
Israel used White Phosphorus against HAMAS targets in Gaza during
Operation Cast Lead in January 2009. This violated no international laws
or conventions.
White Phosphorus (WP), known as Willy Pete, is used for
signaling, screening, and incendiary purposes. White Phosphorus can be
used to destroy the enemy's equipment or to limit his vision. It is
used against vehicles, petroleum, oils and lubricants (POL) and
ammunition storage areas, and enemy observers. WP can be used as an aid
in target location and navigation. It is usually dispersed by explosive
munitions. It can be fired with fuze time to obtain an airburst. White
phosphorus was used most often during World War II in military
formulations for smoke screens, marker shells, incendiaries, hand
grenades, smoke markers, colored flares, and tracer bullets.
The Battle of Fallujah was conducted from 8 to 20 November 2004
with the last fire mission on 17 November. The battle was fought by an
Army, Marine and Iraqi force of about 15,000 under the I Marine
Expeditionary Force (IMEF). US forces found WP to be useful in the
Battle of Fallujah. "WP proved to be an effective and versatile
munition. We used it for screening missions at two breeches and, later
in the fight, as a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in
trench lines and spider holes when we could not get effects on them
with HE. We fired "shake and bake" missions at the insurgents, using WP
to flush them out and HE to take them out. ... We used improved WP for
screening missions when HC smoke would have been more effective and
saved our WP for lethal missions."
But of course, since what's going on in Syria is just Muslims killing Muslims, no one cares enough to raise the issue. In fact, no one will stop the Assad regime from using chemical weapons on his own population, even though the Obama administration once promised to ensure that would never happen. This is from Brennan again:
The U.S. had at one point seemed to declare that
movement of chemical weapons in Syria would justify or require U.S.
action, with President Obama declaring at an August 20 news conference
that “a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical
weapons moving around or being utilized”; given that the gas is now
being loaded into bombs, it seems fair to say, they have now been moved
from their hiding places to bases from which they can be deployed. An
NSC spokesman, however, claims that the president meant “‘moving around’
means proliferation,” which seems implausible: If the Syrian regime’s
chemical weapons were in transit and about to fall into the hands of
other states or non-state terrorist actors such as Hezbollah, that would
constitute a “red line,” and presumably even this administration would
not flinch in acting.
But that seems unlikely, something Assad has little interest in
doing, and doesn’t seem to be what the president was talking about when
he set his first “red line” — “moving around or being utilized” implies
the first event as a hint that the second was about to occur (though we
wouldn’t always be able to observe it before the second did), i.e., the
Syrian government preparing its weapons, not transferring them to other
actors — and now the Syrian government has done that, and the U.S. is
not going to respond.
As to what the new red line implies, the State Department has not
been very clear, either, with explaining what exactly the U.S. would do
if Assad crosses the new red line. When asked yesterday if a redline
would involve “some kind of a military response,” Deputy State spokesman
Mark Toner responded that, “We’re not going to get into what the
consequences would be, other than to say that there’s a red line. . . A
red line is a red line.”
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
