EXPANDING THE MIDDLE EAST WAR
Israel hit Lebanese residential buildings with white phosphorous – rights group
5 June 2024
Human rights advocates say it is a crime under international law to fire the munitions into populated areas.
A global human rights group has claimed that Israel used white phosphorus incendiary shells on residential buildings in at least five towns and villages in southern Lebanon, possibly harming civilians and violating international law.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in its report that there was no evidence of burn injuries due to white phosphorus in Lebanon, but that researchers had “heard accounts indicating possible respiratory damage”.
Human rights advocates say it is a crime under international law to fire the controversial munitions into populated areas.
Israel maintains it uses the white phosphorus only as a smokescreen and not to target civilians.
The white-hot chemical substance can set buildings on fire and burn human flesh down to the bone.
Survivors are at risk of infections and organ or respiratory failure, even if their burns are small.
The HRW report includes interviews with eight residents in conflict-hit southern Lebanon, and the group says it has verified and geolocated images from almost 47 photos and videos that show white phosphorus shells landing on residential buildings in five Lebanese border towns and villages.
The Lebanese health ministry says at least 173 people have required medical care after exposure to white phosphorus.
The researchers found that the controversial incendiaries were used in residential areas in Kfar Kila, Mays al-Jabal, Boustan, Markaba, and Aita al-Shaab, towns that are among the hardest-hit in eight months of fighting.
The New York-based rights group alongside Amnesty International also accused Israel of using white phosphorus in residential areas in October 2023, less than a month after clashes began between the Israeli military and the powerful Hezbollah group along the southern Lebanon-Israel border, a day after the Israel-Hamas war broke out on October 7.
In its report, HRW called on the Lebanese government to allow the International Criminal Court to investigate and prosecute “grave international crimes” within Lebanon since October 2023.
“Israel’s recent use of white phosphorus in Lebanon should motivate other countries to take immediate action toward this goal,” said HRW Lebanon researcher Ramzi Kaiss.
More 400 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of them fighters but also including more than 70 civilians and non-combatants.
In Israel, 15 soldiers and 10 civilians have been killed since October. Tens of thousands of people have been displaced on both sides of the border.
Hamas says Israel wants ‘endless’ truce negotiations
A girl injured by Israeli bombardment on al-Bureij was taken to the Aqsa Martyrs hospital in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. — AFP picWednesday, 05 Jun 2024 BEIRUT, June 5 — A senior Hamas official in Beirut yesterday accused Israel of prolonging truce negotiations and repeated the Palestinian group’s position rejecting any deal that excludes a permanent ceasefire.
The statement came as mediator Qatar said it was awaiting a “clear position” from Israel on a proposed Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal outlined by US President Joe Biden.
Hamas official Osama Hamdan said Israel’s response to mediators regarding a ceasefire proposal that Hamas accepted on May 6 “speaks to opening the door to endless negotiations on everything”.
Qatar, along with the United States and Egypt, has been engaged in months of back-and-forth negotiations over details for a ceasefire and the exchange of hostages and prisoners.
Talks stalled in early May when Israel began ground operations in Rafah, southern Gaza.
In a bid to revive the negotiations, Biden said on Friday that Israel proposed a new three-stage roadmap.
Hamdan told a news conference in Beirut that according to the US president, “the mediators guarantee to continue negotiations indefinitely, until the two parties agree”.
Hamas had told mediators it “cannot agree to a deal that doesn’t that does not secure... a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and the achievement of a serious, real prisoner exchange deal”, he said.
That Israel has not agreed to such a deal shows it wants to reclaim the hostages and “then resume its aggression... it doesn’t want a ceasefire,” he said.
“We call on the mediators to obtain a clear position from the Israeli occupation, on its commitment to... a permanent ceasefire and full withdrawal,” Hamdan added.
Previous mediation frameworks have failed over Hamas’s demand for a permanent ceasefire, while Israel insists on its right to pursue its objective of destroying the Palestinian group.
Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said Tuesday that “we have yet to see a very clear position from the Israeli government towards the principles laid out by President Biden,” adding there was no “concrete approval” from either side
. — AFP
BEIRUT, June 5 — A senior Hamas official in Beirut yesterday accused Israel of prolonging truce negotiations and repeated the Palestinian group’s position rejecting any deal that excludes a permanent ceasefire.
The statement came as mediator Qatar said it was awaiting a “clear position” from Israel on a proposed Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal outlined by US President Joe Biden.
Hamas official Osama Hamdan said Israel’s response to mediators regarding a ceasefire proposal that Hamas accepted on May 6 “speaks to opening the door to endless negotiations on everything”.
Qatar, along with the United States and Egypt, has been engaged in months of back-and-forth negotiations over details for a ceasefire and the exchange of hostages and prisoners.
Talks stalled in early May when Israel began ground operations in Rafah, southern Gaza.
In a bid to revive the negotiations, Biden said on Friday that Israel proposed a new three-stage roadmap.
Hamdan told a news conference in Beirut that according to the US president, “the mediators guarantee to continue negotiations indefinitely, until the two parties agree”.
Hamas had told mediators it “cannot agree to a deal that doesn’t that does not secure... a permanent ceasefire and the complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and the achievement of a serious, real prisoner exchange deal”, he said.
That Israel has not agreed to such a deal shows it wants to reclaim the hostages and “then resume its aggression... it doesn’t want a ceasefire,” he said.
“We call on the mediators to obtain a clear position from the Israeli occupation, on its commitment to... a permanent ceasefire and full withdrawal,” Hamdan added.
Previous mediation frameworks have failed over Hamas’s demand for a permanent ceasefire, while Israel insists on its right to pursue its objective of destroying the Palestinian group.
Qatari foreign ministry spokesman Majed al-Ansari said Tuesday that “we have yet to see a very clear position from the Israeli government towards the principles laid out by President Biden,” adding there was no “concrete approval” from either side
. — AFP
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