ZIONIST IMPERIALISM
Israel Illegally Using White Phosphorus Against Civilians in Lebanon: Human Rights Watch
“The incendiary effects of white phosphorous can cause death or cruel injuries that result in lifelong suffering.”
Smoke rises after Israeli airstrikes targeted the Dahieh area of Beirut, Lebanon, on March 9, 2026. Israeli warplanes carried out strikes in the area, where explosions were heard following the attacks.
(Photo by Ethem Emre Ozcan/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Stephen Prager
Mar 09, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Israel is illegally using white phosphorous in civilian areas amid its new onslaught in Lebanon, putting residents at risk of death or life-altering injury, according to a report released Monday by Human Rights Watch.
The human rights group said it has verified and geolocated seven photos showing airburst white phosphorus munitions being deployed on March 3 over homes in the southern Lebanese town of Yohmor.
Images also showed civil defense workers responding to fires in at least two homes and one car in that area.
White phosphorus, a chemical substance that ignites when exposed to oxygen, is considered unlawfully indiscriminate under international law when deployed in civilian areas, as it can result in homes, agricultural areas, and other civilian infrastructure catching on fire.
“The Israeli military’s unlawful use of white phosphorus over residential areas is extremely alarming and will have dire consequences for civilians,” said Ramzi Kaiss, a Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The incendiary effects of white phosphorous can cause death or cruel injuries that result in lifelong suffering.”
Human Rights Watch said it has not verified whether anyone was in the area at the time the white phosphorus was deployed or whether it resulted in any injuries.
It is not the first time Israel has been documented deploying white phosphorus in Lebanon. In June 2024, Human Rights Watch verified at least 17 instances of the chemical substance being deployed across south Lebanon since October 2023.
As of May 28, 2024, Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health reported that at least 173 people had suffered injuries from white phosphorus since October 2023—including respiratory issues like asphyxiation.
“Israel should immediately halt this practice and states providing Israel with weapons, including white phosphorus munitions, should immediately suspend military assistance and arms sales and push Israel to stop firing such munitions in residential areas,” Kaiss said.
Yohmor was one of more than 100 villages where Israel ordered civilians to “immediately” evacuate last week—orders that have resulted in the mass displacement of more than 300,000 people from their homes, according to a Friday report from the Norwegian Refugee Council.
On March 3, residents of Yohmor and other villages given evacuation orders were told by Avichay Adraee, Israel’s Arabic military spokesperson, that they “should immediately evacuate [their homes] and move away from the villages to a distance of at least 1,000 meters outside the village to open land.”
Due to the “sweeping nature” of its orders, Human Rights Watch has warned that “their purpose is not to protect civilians, especially in the context of recent large-scale displacement of civilians in Lebanon.”
The report notes that between September and November 2024, more than 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon as a result of attacks across the country. Many, who were able to return home following a ceasefire in November 2024, have been displaced once more.
Since Israel and the United States launched a war against Iran last week, resulting in retaliation from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Israel has pushed further into Lebanon, carrying out attacks on several villages across southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, and Beirut.
“Contrary to [Israel’s] claims, the strikes are not aimed at military personnel or installations, but rather at residential homes, medical responders, healthcare infrastructure, as well as women and children,” said Lebanese Health Minister Rakan Nasreddine on Sunday.
Since March 2, he said that Israeli airstrikes across Lebanon have killed 394 people, including 83 children and 42 women, while wounding 1,130 people, including 254 children and 274 women.
“The number is still increasing,” he added.
“The incendiary effects of white phosphorous can cause death or cruel injuries that result in lifelong suffering.”
Smoke rises after Israeli airstrikes targeted the Dahieh area of Beirut, Lebanon, on March 9, 2026. Israeli warplanes carried out strikes in the area, where explosions were heard following the attacks.
(Photo by Ethem Emre Ozcan/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Stephen Prager
Mar 09, 2026
COMMON DREAMS
Israel is illegally using white phosphorous in civilian areas amid its new onslaught in Lebanon, putting residents at risk of death or life-altering injury, according to a report released Monday by Human Rights Watch.
The human rights group said it has verified and geolocated seven photos showing airburst white phosphorus munitions being deployed on March 3 over homes in the southern Lebanese town of Yohmor.
Images also showed civil defense workers responding to fires in at least two homes and one car in that area.
White phosphorus, a chemical substance that ignites when exposed to oxygen, is considered unlawfully indiscriminate under international law when deployed in civilian areas, as it can result in homes, agricultural areas, and other civilian infrastructure catching on fire.
“The Israeli military’s unlawful use of white phosphorus over residential areas is extremely alarming and will have dire consequences for civilians,” said Ramzi Kaiss, a Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The incendiary effects of white phosphorous can cause death or cruel injuries that result in lifelong suffering.”
Human Rights Watch said it has not verified whether anyone was in the area at the time the white phosphorus was deployed or whether it resulted in any injuries.
It is not the first time Israel has been documented deploying white phosphorus in Lebanon. In June 2024, Human Rights Watch verified at least 17 instances of the chemical substance being deployed across south Lebanon since October 2023.
As of May 28, 2024, Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health reported that at least 173 people had suffered injuries from white phosphorus since October 2023—including respiratory issues like asphyxiation.
“Israel should immediately halt this practice and states providing Israel with weapons, including white phosphorus munitions, should immediately suspend military assistance and arms sales and push Israel to stop firing such munitions in residential areas,” Kaiss said.
Yohmor was one of more than 100 villages where Israel ordered civilians to “immediately” evacuate last week—orders that have resulted in the mass displacement of more than 300,000 people from their homes, according to a Friday report from the Norwegian Refugee Council.
On March 3, residents of Yohmor and other villages given evacuation orders were told by Avichay Adraee, Israel’s Arabic military spokesperson, that they “should immediately evacuate [their homes] and move away from the villages to a distance of at least 1,000 meters outside the village to open land.”
Due to the “sweeping nature” of its orders, Human Rights Watch has warned that “their purpose is not to protect civilians, especially in the context of recent large-scale displacement of civilians in Lebanon.”
The report notes that between September and November 2024, more than 1.2 million people were displaced in Lebanon as a result of attacks across the country. Many, who were able to return home following a ceasefire in November 2024, have been displaced once more.
Since Israel and the United States launched a war against Iran last week, resulting in retaliation from the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, Israel has pushed further into Lebanon, carrying out attacks on several villages across southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley, and Beirut.
“Contrary to [Israel’s] claims, the strikes are not aimed at military personnel or installations, but rather at residential homes, medical responders, healthcare infrastructure, as well as women and children,” said Lebanese Health Minister Rakan Nasreddine on Sunday.
Since March 2, he said that Israeli airstrikes across Lebanon have killed 394 people, including 83 children and 42 women, while wounding 1,130 people, including 254 children and 274 women.
“The number is still increasing,” he added.
Israel's military said it hit Iranian commanders in the Lebanese capital early on Sunday, expanding the scope of its campaign to the heart of Beirut after days of strikes that have left nearly 400 people dead in Lebanon alone and displaced more than half a million.
Issued on: 08/03/2026 -
By: FRANCE 24
Video by: Catherine NORRIS TRENT
The Ramada Plaza hotel building in central Beirut pictured in the aftermath of an Israeli strike, on March 8, 2026. © Claudia Greco, Reuters
03:54
Israel struck a hotel in central Beirut on Sunday, the first attack on the city centre since the start of the new war with Hezbollah, as Lebanon said nearly 400 people were killed over the past week.
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on Monday, when Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during US-Israeli strikes.
Israel, which has kept up strikes targeting Hezbollah despite a 2024 ceasefire, launched multiple waves of strikes this week across Lebanon and sent ground troops into border areas.
Hezbollah said on Sunday that it repeatedly targeted northern Israel, including attacking a naval base in Haifa and sending a swarm of drones towards the city of Nahariya.
Israel's military, meanwhile, said that two of its soldiers were killed in combat in southern Lebanon, the first fatalities among its forces since the latest offensive began on March 2.
It also reiterated its call for Lebanese residents to leave the area south of the Litani River, which covers many hundreds of square kilometres (miles).
Lebanon's health minister Rakan Nassereddine on Sunday said Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed 394 people over the past week, including 83 children and 42 women.
03:54
Israel struck a hotel in central Beirut on Sunday, the first attack on the city centre since the start of the new war with Hezbollah, as Lebanon said nearly 400 people were killed over the past week.
Lebanon was drawn into the Middle East war on Monday, when Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah attacked Israel in response to the killing of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during US-Israeli strikes.
Israel, which has kept up strikes targeting Hezbollah despite a 2024 ceasefire, launched multiple waves of strikes this week across Lebanon and sent ground troops into border areas.
Hezbollah said on Sunday that it repeatedly targeted northern Israel, including attacking a naval base in Haifa and sending a swarm of drones towards the city of Nahariya.
Israel's military, meanwhile, said that two of its soldiers were killed in combat in southern Lebanon, the first fatalities among its forces since the latest offensive began on March 2.
It also reiterated its call for Lebanese residents to leave the area south of the Litani River, which covers many hundreds of square kilometres (miles).
Lebanon's health minister Rakan Nassereddine on Sunday said Israeli strikes on Lebanon killed 394 people over the past week, including 83 children and 42 women.
© France 24
02:02
02:02
Social affairs minister Haneen Sayed later said 517,000 displaced people had registered their names on a website affiliated with the ministry, including 117,228 people in government shelters.
Earlier the same day, the health ministry said an Israeli air strike hit Beirut's city centre, targeting "a hotel room" and killing four people and wounding 10 others.
'No safe place'
"I came here from the southern suburbs to be safe with my children and the strike hit," said Abu Hussein, a 45-year-old taxi driver while showing his damaged car.
"There is no safe place."
An AFP photographer at the bombarded seafront hotel saw one room on the fourth floor with shattered glass and charred walls, while security forces cordoned off the site.
Israel's military said it had "conducted a precise strike" targeting "five commanders" in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, its foreign operations arm, "while they were meeting at a hotel in Beirut".
Lebanese first responders inspect a Beirut hotel room targeted by the Israeli strike © Ibrahim AMRO / AFP
A security official at the scene told AFP on condition of anonymity that Hezbollah-linked rescuers recovered three bodies from the hotel.
The Raouche area is a major tourist destination and remained untouched by Israeli strikes during the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah, which a November 2024 ceasefire sought to end.
Along its Mediterranean coast, the area is home to dozens of hotels, now overcrowded with displaced people who fled their homes elsewhere in Lebanon.
Iranians evacuated
Lebanon's government on Thursday banned any activity by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps -- a main backer of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
A Lebanese official who requested anonymity told AFP that "a total of 117 Iranians, including diplomats and embassy staff, were evacuated on a Russian plane that left Beirut overnight from Saturday to Sunday" for Turkey.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi also accused Hezbollah of carrying out a "blatant attack on Cyprus", after Nicosia said an Iranian-made drone that hit a British base on the island on Monday was probably fired by Hezbollah in Lebanon.
In the south, a strike on Sir al-Gharbiyeh, just north of the Litani, killed 11 people including children according to the health ministry, with rescue efforts ongoing to find people under the rubble.
Standing next to a destroyed home, resident Ali Youssef Taha told AFP that "a family was sleeping inside" before "Israeli warplanes bombed the building, resulting in a massacre".
A security official at the scene told AFP on condition of anonymity that Hezbollah-linked rescuers recovered three bodies from the hotel.
The Raouche area is a major tourist destination and remained untouched by Israeli strikes during the previous war between Israel and Hezbollah, which a November 2024 ceasefire sought to end.
Along its Mediterranean coast, the area is home to dozens of hotels, now overcrowded with displaced people who fled their homes elsewhere in Lebanon.
Iranians evacuated
Lebanon's government on Thursday banned any activity by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps -- a main backer of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.
A Lebanese official who requested anonymity told AFP that "a total of 117 Iranians, including diplomats and embassy staff, were evacuated on a Russian plane that left Beirut overnight from Saturday to Sunday" for Turkey.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raggi also accused Hezbollah of carrying out a "blatant attack on Cyprus", after Nicosia said an Iranian-made drone that hit a British base on the island on Monday was probably fired by Hezbollah in Lebanon.
In the south, a strike on Sir al-Gharbiyeh, just north of the Litani, killed 11 people including children according to the health ministry, with rescue efforts ongoing to find people under the rubble.
Standing next to a destroyed home, resident Ali Youssef Taha told AFP that "a family was sleeping inside" before "Israeli warplanes bombed the building, resulting in a massacre".
© France 24
02:04
02:04
Later on Sunday, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported two Israeli strikes on the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh in the south.
Earlier that day, an Israeli strike on Tefahta, also in the south but above the Litani river, killed six people according to the Lebanese health ministry.
Israel's army said, meanwhile, that it struck "over 600" Hezbollah targets and killed 200 members of the group in the past week.
It announced in a later statement that it carried out over 100 air strikes in Lebanon targeting Hezbollah.
Lebanon's health minister insisted that "these are civilians being targeted, not, as they claim, military personnel and military installations", adding that nine rescuers had been killed since the start of the latest war.
On Friday night, a failed Israeli commando operation to find the remains of airman Ron Arad, missing since 1986, killed 41 people in eastern Lebanon.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
