A new exclusive from The Washington Post shows that US-made white phosphorus munitions were used by the Israeli military in Lebanon. The reporting team of William Christou,  Alex Horton, and  Meg Kelly uncovered three 155-millimeter artillery rounds fired into the Lebanon border town of Dheira.

White phosphorus is not a chemical weapon under the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), but the World Health Organization considers it a potential violation of international law to use it against people in a civilian setting. “To establish an illegal use under the CCCW, an investigation into the intent behind the use of white phosphorus would be needed, which exceeds the mandate of WHO,” notes the organization’s website.

The United States government supplies Israel with over $3.8 billion in weapons annually and President Biden has been pushing for billions more since the October 7th Hamas attack.

According to the Post, production codes on the uncovered shells match those from munitions two United States depots, Thiokol Aerospace in Minden, Louisiana and the Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas. The production codes indicate that the munitions were manufactured in 1989 and 1992.

At least nine people were injured in Israel’s attack on Dheira. The Health Ministry says that nearly 100 people have been killed on the Lebanese side of the border since hostilities between the two countries reignited. The Post quotes an interview from Lebanese farmer Uday Abu Sari, who was trapped in his home for hours during the attack and had trouble breathing.

“Emergency services told us to put something that was soaked in water on our faces, which helped a bit. I couldn’t see my finger in front of my face,” Sari explained. “The whole village became white.”

This isn’t the first time that a link between Israel’s white phosphorus and U.S. munitions facilities has been unearthed.

An October report from Amnesty International shows photographs of white phosphorus munitions that were seemingly produced at the Pine Bluff Arsenal in Arkansas. That’s the only white phosphorus factory that’s still operating in North America. The Arkansas Times recently reported that the munitions’s markings indicate they were probably assembled at the facility in 1991. Amnesty International investigator Brian Castner told the paper that his organization “verified several videos that almost certainly show that white phosphorus smoke projectiles were used in Gaza,” but noted that Israel appears to have switched to other kinds of smoke rounds.

In 2009, the IDF fired white phosphorus shells at the UN Relief and Works Agency in Gaza City, destroying medicine and food. Shells uncovered from the scene also had production codes indicating they were made in Arkansas. That same year Reuters photographed IDF units handling projectiles, indicating they were produced at the same facility.

Activists have protested outside the Pine Bluff Arsenal through the years, but the company has never responded to inquiries about the issue. One Arkansas-based protestor told Mondoweiss that the arsenal has a very small staff and that jobs are hard to come by in the area, making it nearly impossible to compile further information.

Addressing reporters on Air Force One, White House spokesperson John Kirby said the Biden administration was “concerned” about the news and was investigating the matter further.

“Obviously any time that we provide items like white phosphorous to another military, it is with the full expectation that it will be used in keeping with those legitimate purposes … and in keeping with the law of armed conflict,” said Kirby.

SOURCE: https://mondoweiss.net/2023/12/report-israel-used-u-s-supplied-white-phosphorus-in-lebanon-attack/

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