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July 26th,
2006 - Israel Accused of Using Phosphorous Bombs in Lebanon |
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Israel Accused of Using Phosphorous
Bombs in Lebanon Israel defends its use of such weapons From Ma’an News Agency July 26, 2006 Beirut, 26 July - The
Israeli military has defended itself following allegations by Lebanese
government officials, doctors and an international human rights organisation
that phosphorous bombs have been used, and have harmed civilians. "The IDF's use of
weapons and ammunition conforms to international law. The specific claims are
being checked based on the information provided to us," the Israeli
Defence Force (IDF) said in a statement sent to IRIN. Lebanon's Information
Minister Ghazi Aridi has said "Israel is using internationally
prohibited weapons against civilians." Aridi failed to specify which
weapons, but his comment followed claims that Israel had used bombs
containing phosphorous. Phosphorus is a chemical
that burns the skin and increases risk of mortality because of the absorption
of chemicals into the body resulting in organ failure. White phosphorus
continues to burn until consumed completely or deprived of oxygen. In some
cases it can burn right down to the bone. "Israel has always used
them [phosphorous bombs]," said Timor Goksel, a former spokesman of the
United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) who served for over 20 years
in southern Lebanon. "[Phosphorous bombs
were] mostly used in the terrain, not in urban areas, which is allowed.
Phosphorus bombs are allowed to light up a battlefield, [but cannot be used]
to firebomb buildings." "I've seen the victims'
burns in the hospital of Tyre, and they almost certainly have been caused by
phosphorous bombs," he told IRIN. Protocol III of the Geneva
Conventions, to which Israel is a signatory, but with legal reservations,
prohibits and restricts the use of incendiary weapons on civilian
populations. A Belgian doctor of Lebanese
descent, Bachir Cham, heads the Assairane Hospital in the southern city of
Sidon. "Following a bomb attack near Sidon, we had eight bodies brought
to the hospital," said Cham. "Normally, people killed or injured by
a bomb explosion or in a car accident show traces of burns or blood. But these
bodies showed neither. The skin was completely black, while the muscle
underneath was intact." Cham, a heart and vascular
specialist who taught at universities in Brussels and Paris, took 24 skin
samples from the bodies and sent them to the World Health Organization in Geneva.
He also took photos. According to Cham, similar burns cases have been
reported in other hospitals. Doctors say many patients have been treated with
severe burns in the southern city of Tyre. The emergencies' director of
Human Rights Watch (HRW), Peter Boukhaert, who is currently in Lebanon, said
HRW researchers in Israel had been able to confirm Israel's use of phosphorus
bombs along the border with Lebanon. But deeper inside Lebanon,
it had been harder to establish the use of phosphorus. "So far, the
burns we've seen in Lebanon could have been caused by normal bombs
fire." External link: http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=13738 |