Palestine has accused Israel of using white phosphorus bombs against civilians in the Karama neighborhood of the Gaza Strip as Tel Aviv vowed to escalate its response to an attack by Hamas with a ground offensive.
“The Israeli occupation is using internationally banned white phosphorus bombs against the Palestinians in the Karama neighborhood in northern Gaza,” the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said on X, formerly Twitter.
Israeli warplanes and artillery use internationally #prohibited_white_phosphorus, destroying #Al_Karama neighborhood in the northwest of Gaza City with a continuous series of airstrikes. There are casualties and wounded, while ambulances and civil defense vehicles are unable to… pic.twitter.com/ym7zfKqIBH
— State of Palestine – MFA 🇵🇸🇵🇸 (@pmofa) October 10, 2023
Rami Abdo, the founder of the European Observatory for Human Rights, posted a video clip on the X platform of what he said was Israel’s use of phosphorus bombs.
“Israeli military forces are using toxic white phosphorus [bombs] on densely populated areas northwest of Gaza City,” he wrote.
The New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch had earlier cited reports of Israel’s use of white phosphorus bombs in Gaza during past conflicts, according to Anadolu.
⚡️The regime is using what looks like Phosphorus munitions on civilian areas in Gaza pic.twitter.com/6N4d3Arjkh
— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) October 10, 2023
The use of white phosphorus weapons to generate a smokescreen and cover troop movements is legally accepted, but the 1980 Geneva Convention forbids its use in densely populated areas.
