Carina Gibson
01.23.09
11:07
Palestinian officials recently confirmed the use of white phosphorus on many civilian homes in Gaza. In early January several homes, including the one of Sabah Abu Halima, were hit with the military weapon known as white phosphorus. The Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, a 1980 international treaty, outlaws making civilians “the object of attack”. This weapon is used to “spread a thick, white smoke to screen military actions” in order to mark specific territories, and is not allowed to be used on highly dense civilian populated area. Amnesty International is outraged at this blatant misuse of this weapon, and demand a thorough and impartial investigation into the Israeli military that shot these phosphorous rounds. Children, men and women of all ages are being brutally affected by this military attack. Not only are these very unfair and unequal attacks on civilians, the casualties resulting from this are unusually harsh. The head of Shifa’s burn unit, Dr. Nafez Abu Shaban, said the burns were a kind he had never seen before, ones reaching all the way to muscle and bone. The burns cannot be dressed as normal ones, which only makes them worse. Pieces of white phosphorus were pulled out of the smoking wounds of numerous patients. These weapons are not banned, but have a limited range of use. Human Rights group constantly criticize there use because of the widespread fires and devastating burns they create. When the shells explode, “pieces of felt soaked in phosphorus” disperse and can land on people and buildings, therefore hard to control their wide spread effect. The head of the Arms Unit for the International Committee of the Red Cross, Peter Herby, is pending further investigation on whether or not Israel’s use of white phosphorus is a violation of international humanitarian standards.
This is a devastating casualty of war that is, in my opinion, due to the lack of careful attention of the military. Investigation should be made in order for this to be stopped, or at least prevented to the fullest extent. Such casulaties should be avoided, especially on civilians.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/world/middleeast/22phosphorus.html
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