Israeli military's use of white phosphorus in Gaza violated laws of war, Human Rights Watch reported
Marian Houk
March 26, 2009
Human Rights Watch said in a damning report released today that the Israeli military had "deliberately or recklessly used white phosphorus munitions in violation of the laws of war" during the 22-day Operation Cast Lead in Gaza.
The New York-based human rights organization said that its experts had come to this conclusion for the following reasons: "First, the repeated use of air-burst white phosphorus in populated areas until the last days of the operation reveals a pattern or policy of conduct rather than incidental or accidental usage. Second, the IDF was well aware of the effects of white phosphorus and the dangers it poses to civilians. Third, the IDF failed to use safer available alternatives for smokescreens".
The report was supposed to be released on Thursday. But, Fred Abrahams, the senior emergencies researcher for Human Rights Watch (HRW), and one of the co-authors of the report on the IDF's use of white phosphorus in Gaza, said this afternoon in Jerusalem that the embargo was being lifted because of numerous leaks, which had already been published in the media.
According to the HRW report, the Israeli troops began using white phosphorus in different areas of the Gaza Strip starting after the launch of a ground offensive on 3 January.
Even though an HRW team of experts was unable to enter Gaza until Israel and Hamas declared separate cease-fires on 18 January, they did witness themselves the aerial attacks from Israeli territory around the Gaza perimeter.
The HRW report says that "In incidents investigated by Human Rights Watch, Israeli forces used white phosphorus munitions in an indiscriminate or disproportionate manner in violations of the laws of war. In these incidents, even if the intended use of the white phosphorus was as an obscurant, it had the effect on the ground as a weapon. The rationale for an obscurant seems doubtful because there were either no Israeli forces in the vicinity to screen or such forces were for a considerable period in a stationary deployment. And if the purpose was to obscure military maneuvers, the IDF could have achieved similar obscuring effects through use of smoke artillery without causing the same degree of civilian harm ... As the incendiary effects of white phosphorus on civilians are well known, the civilian harm caused by white phosphorus use in populated areas was foreseeable".
The report stated that "The IDF's deliberate or reckless use of white phosphorus munitions is evidenced in five ways. First, to Human Rights Watch's knowledge, the IDF never used its white phosphorus munitions in Gaza before, despite numerous incursions with personnel and armor. Second, the repeated use of air-burst white phosphorus in populated areas until the last days of the operation reveals a pattern or policy of conduct rather than incidental or accidental usage. Third, the IDF was well aware of the effects white phosphorus has and the dangers it can pose to civilians. Fourth, if the IDF used white phosphorus as an obscurant, it failed to use available alternatives, namely smoke munitions, which would have held similar tactical advantages without endangering the civilian population. Fifth, in at least one of the cases documented in this report the January 15 strike on the UNRWA compound in Gaza City the IDF kept firing white phosphorus despite repeated warnings from UN personnel about the danger to civilians. Under international humanitarian law, these circumstances demand the independent investigation of the use of white phosphorus and, if warranted, the prosecution of all those responsible for war crimes".
HRW says that "The only unique benefit provided by white phosphorus is the ability to interfere with the infra-red spectrum, thus impeding the use of night vision and infra-red tracking systems used in anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs). However, the IDF extensively used white phosphorus during the day, obviating the need to block night vision, and Human Rights Watch found no evidence that Hamas fired ATGMs".
The report also says that "The use of white phosphorus as an obscurant in densely populated areas of Gaza violated the requirement under international humanitarian law to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian injury and loss of life. This concern is amplified given the method of use observed by Human Rights Watch and evidenced in media photographs of air-bursting white phosphorus projectiles. Air-bursting spreads burning wedges in a radius up to 125 meters from the blast point, thereby exposing more civilians and civilian objects to potential harm than a localized ground burst".
One of the worst accounts in the HRW report is this one, about a young man who was terribly wounded while trying to save his parents and a brother and a sister who were burning to death in a car hit by White Phosphorus:
"The Tel al-Hawa neighborhood in southeastern Gaza City is a relatively affluent residential area with wide streets and multi-story apartment buildings inhabited mostly by professionals and their families-what one resident called 'a secular stronghold' ... Ground fighting commenced when IDF troops began to enter the neighborhood from the south for limited periods around January 11, reportedly facing heavy mortar and gunfire from Palestinian armed groups. The fighting intensified around midnight on January 14-15, when Israeli forces advanced into Tel al-Hawa with troops and tanks One resident told Human Rights Watch: 'My daughter told me there was a car on fire with people in it. I looked out and saw a young man who had lost control of himself trying to push his way into the burning car. When I got to the car he had fallen down and he was on fire. The shelling was ongoing and I dragged him to an alley and tried to talk to him, but he couldn't talk. One of his eyes had burned away and he was horribly injured'. According to the resident, he and the wounded man (Mohammad al-Haddad, 25) were stuck in the alley for 90 minutes as the shelling continued, and because they feared Israeli snipers in the area. Once the shelling subsided, he and two young men carried the wounded man to a neighbor's car and then drove him to al-Shifa hospital. At 2:30 p.m. he returned to the car and found that it had partially melted and the gas tank had exploded In the smoking wreckage, he said, they found only a few bones of the four occupants. A piece of a skull and some teeth lay next to the vehicle, the resident said. Human Rights Watch spoke to al-Haddad in the burn unit at al-Shifa Hospital on January 27, and he corroborated the other testimony. According to Mohammad al-Haddad, the IDF started shelling Tel al-Hawa at 7 a.m. on January 15. He and his family waited in their home until 11 a.m., he said, when Israel announced it would begin a temporary unilateral ceasefire. At that point, they got into their gray 1996 Volkswagen Golf. He explained what happened next: 'We drove about 100 meters to the intersection at the end of our street, when we were hit. The power of the explosion threw me from the car. I lost consciousness, but then I went back to the car, and that's where (my neighbor) said he found me. After that I woke up in the hospital'. In addition to losing his left eye, al-Haddad suffered third-degree burns to his legs, hands and forehead, and a broken jaw. His younger brother Salam, 18, is the only other surviving member of the family he had left the family's house at 10 a.m., before the ceasefire began.
The HRW report continued, "Dr. Nafiz Abu Sha'baan, head of the burn and plastic surgery unit at al-Shifa Hospital, treated Mohammad al-Haddad upon arrival. Dr. Abu Sha`baan said that he had not treated any white phosphorus wounds prior to Operation Cast Lead and that the hospital did not classify injuries as caused by white phosphorus due to a lack of diagnostic tools to make that assessment. However, Dr. Abu Sha'baan told Human Rights Watch that Mohammad's injuries appeared consistent with wounds caused by white phosphorus. 'We think it's from white phosphorus because the burns are very deep', he said. 'We already excised burnt tissue and now his wounds are getting worse. When we saw him the first time the wounds were more superficial than they are now. We've got to operate again tomorrow to excise more tissue'.
Elsewhere in the report, HRW states that "Palestinian and foreign doctors who treated burn victims told Human Rights Watch about seeing intense and very deep burns. On some occasions the wounds began to burn again when cleaned, which is consistent with white phosphorus igniting on contact with oxygen. 'For the first time I'm seeing strange kinds of burns, very deep to the bone', one doctor at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City told Human Rights Watch. 'And they cause a bacterial infection unlike anything else'. Some seriously burned patients were evacuated to Egypt for treatment, especially if they needed skin grafts, because Gazan hospitals could not offer proper care. 'We have a lot of burns, actually chemical burns', a doctor in Cairo treating Gazans told Human Rights Watch. 'Most are third degree burns, which look like chemical burns and not ordinary burns. There is no skin and sometimes even no muscle'."
The White Phosphorus attacks recounted by Human Rights Watch in its just-released report, "Rain of Fire", were only part of horrors of war inflicted upon civilians in Gaza during the 22-day IDF Operation Cast Lead, 27 December to 18 January.
Khuza'a village, east of Khan Younis, and not far from the Israeli border, was attacked intermittently for over three days by White Phosphorus, from 10 to 13 January. Then, on the 13th of January, as their homes were collapsing above their heads, women and children who were waving white flags while trying to flee were shot dead by Israeli soldiers.
The HRW report said that "the village of Khuza'a is one of the closest Palestinian residential areas to Israel, in sight of IDF watchtowers. Open fields separate it from the armistice line. In a series of ground incursions between January 11 and 13, Israeli forces engaged Palestinian fighters, apparently killing three of them. At the same time, local officials said, 16 civilians died and dozens more were wounded, many by smoke inhalation from the extensive use of white phosphorus. On two separate occasions the IDF heavily used air-burst white phosphorus, artillery fired, killing one woman and injuring dozens of others, including one boy who burned his foot on a buried white phosphorus wedge 12 days after the attack. Residents and local human rights activists told Human Rights Watch that Palestinian fighters were active in the area, and an Islamic Jihad commander told the media that about one dozen fighters had directly engaged the IDF in Khuza'a. But these engagements appear to have been minimal, with the fighters mostly retreating whenever Israeli forces advanced. Even with the presence of these fighters, the IDF's extensive use of air-burst white phosphorus in a populated area was unlawful due to the munition's indiscriminate effects. In addition, if the purpose of the white phosphorus was to mask approaching troops, it is unclear why the IDF air-burst the white phosphorus over the neighborhood instead of ground-bursting it, which causes a denser smoke. The IDF's assault on Khuza'a began around 9:30 pm on January 10, with an intense artillery barrage in the area, including white phosphorus shells bursting over the al-Najjar district, inhabited primarily by a family of that name. According to three residents, interviewed separately, white phosphorus shells exploded above private homes, showering the area with burning wedges. Some homes in the area caught on fire, and neighbors helped each other to extinguish the flames" ...
The HRW report added that "The day after the attack, January 11, IDF forces moved into the al-Najjar district of Khuza'a for the first time. From approximately 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. they stayed on the edge of the village, residents and local human rights activists said, and several homes were bulldozed. The IDF returned around 3 a.m. on January 12 and destroyed some more homes, but withdrew again around noon. The next assault took place around midnight on January 13, with heavy shelling, including the extensive use of air-burst white phosphorus ... The widespread use of white phosphorus in the area caused many injuries from smoke inhalation, residents and local human rights activists said. This was confirmed by Dr. Yusuf Abu Rish, the director of Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Yunis, where many of the wounded were taken. He told Human Rights Watch that the hospital received more than 150 patients on January 13, and most of them were suffering from smoke inhalation. 'Even the ambulance bringing the victims was full of a foul odor', he said. Many of the victims suffered from a shortness of breath, hysteria and muscle spasms'. Twelve patients arrived at the hospital dead that day, Dr. Abu Rish said, but that was from all attacks in the Khan Yunis area and not just from white phosphorus. Human Rights Watch reviewed the hospital's records and found that on January 13 doctors there had treated 13 persons for what the hospital called chemical burns. Two of these patients required transfer to Egypt for treatment"... This account is recounted in full in the report which is posted on HRW's website here.
But that was only part of the picture.
On 14 January, Jessica Montell of B´Tselem was one of a group of leading Israeli human rights campaigners who told a press conference in Jerusalem that there was a "clear and present danger" to civilians during the IDF operation in Gaza. "The situation is intolerable and must be stopped", she said.
That morning, B'Tselem had issued an urgent media alert reporting that on 13 January, civilians -- women and children, waving white flags -- who trying to flee their homes during these attacks in which White Phosphorus was used in Khuza'a were shot dead by IDF soldiers. "Even if Hamas people are hiding at a hospital, as long as fire has not come from that hospital, by international law there is no justification for military action, and a hospital does not become a legitimate target", Montell told reporters.
Montell confirmed that her organization had received reports from eyewitnesses, which it transferred to the military, that a woman who walked out of her house in Khuza'a on 13th January, waving a white flag, had then been shot. Injured, and lying the ground where she had fallen, the woman had continued to wave the white flag until she was shot in the head. An ambulance which tried to reach the woman was fired at. Later in the day, a group of 30 civilians waving white flags was also shot at, and at least three more people died. Montell said she could not confirm greater numbers, but said that "This is not the first time that we get such information about the IDF shooting people who leave their houses with white flags, or waving white sheets." This report was recounted here in a post on the UN-Truth blog, on 14 January.
The HRW experts said in the report released today that "All of the white phosphorus shells that Human Rights Watch found came from the same lot manufactured in the United States in 1989 by Thiokol Aerospace, which was running the Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant at the time. In addition, on January 4, 2009, Reuters photographed IDF artillery units handling projectiles whose markings indicate that they were produced in the United States at the Pine Bluff Arsenal in September 1991. Israel's willingness to investigate its use of white phosphorus is welcome, but history suggests that the likelihood of an objective examination is slim. Previous IDF investigations have failed to look objectively at alleged laws of war violations by Israeli soldiers and commanders. In the case of Operation Cast Lead, military investigators have already suggested that soldiers and commanders did no wrong, even before the investigations are complete..."
Human Rights Watch recommended that Israel should establish its own independent commission of inquiry, and the United Nations should also appoint an independent international commission of inquiry, "to investigate credible allegations of violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza and southern Israel by the IDF and Hamas forces between December 27, 2008 and January 18, 2009, including the use of white phosphorus".
The HRW report also says that "The United States government, which supplied Israel with its white phosphorus munitions, should also conduct an investigation to determine whether Israel used it in violation of international humanitarian law".
The New York-based human rights organization said that its experts had come to this conclusion for the following reasons: "First, the repeated use of air-burst white phosphorus in populated areas until the last days of the operation reveals a pattern or policy of conduct rather than incidental or accidental usage. Second, the IDF was well aware of the effects of white phosphorus and the dangers it poses to civilians. Third, the IDF failed to use safer available alternatives for smokescreens".
The report was supposed to be released on Thursday. But, Fred Abrahams, the senior emergencies researcher for Human Rights Watch (HRW), and one of the co-authors of the report on the IDF's use of white phosphorus in Gaza, said this afternoon in Jerusalem that the embargo was being lifted because of numerous leaks, which had already been published in the media.
According to the HRW report, the Israeli troops began using white phosphorus in different areas of the Gaza Strip starting after the launch of a ground offensive on 3 January.
Even though an HRW team of experts was unable to enter Gaza until Israel and Hamas declared separate cease-fires on 18 January, they did witness themselves the aerial attacks from Israeli territory around the Gaza perimeter.
The HRW report says that "In incidents investigated by Human Rights Watch, Israeli forces used white phosphorus munitions in an indiscriminate or disproportionate manner in violations of the laws of war. In these incidents, even if the intended use of the white phosphorus was as an obscurant, it had the effect on the ground as a weapon. The rationale for an obscurant seems doubtful because there were either no Israeli forces in the vicinity to screen or such forces were for a considerable period in a stationary deployment. And if the purpose was to obscure military maneuvers, the IDF could have achieved similar obscuring effects through use of smoke artillery without causing the same degree of civilian harm ... As the incendiary effects of white phosphorus on civilians are well known, the civilian harm caused by white phosphorus use in populated areas was foreseeable".
The report stated that "The IDF's deliberate or reckless use of white phosphorus munitions is evidenced in five ways. First, to Human Rights Watch's knowledge, the IDF never used its white phosphorus munitions in Gaza before, despite numerous incursions with personnel and armor. Second, the repeated use of air-burst white phosphorus in populated areas until the last days of the operation reveals a pattern or policy of conduct rather than incidental or accidental usage. Third, the IDF was well aware of the effects white phosphorus has and the dangers it can pose to civilians. Fourth, if the IDF used white phosphorus as an obscurant, it failed to use available alternatives, namely smoke munitions, which would have held similar tactical advantages without endangering the civilian population. Fifth, in at least one of the cases documented in this report the January 15 strike on the UNRWA compound in Gaza City the IDF kept firing white phosphorus despite repeated warnings from UN personnel about the danger to civilians. Under international humanitarian law, these circumstances demand the independent investigation of the use of white phosphorus and, if warranted, the prosecution of all those responsible for war crimes".
HRW says that "The only unique benefit provided by white phosphorus is the ability to interfere with the infra-red spectrum, thus impeding the use of night vision and infra-red tracking systems used in anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs). However, the IDF extensively used white phosphorus during the day, obviating the need to block night vision, and Human Rights Watch found no evidence that Hamas fired ATGMs".
The report also says that "The use of white phosphorus as an obscurant in densely populated areas of Gaza violated the requirement under international humanitarian law to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian injury and loss of life. This concern is amplified given the method of use observed by Human Rights Watch and evidenced in media photographs of air-bursting white phosphorus projectiles. Air-bursting spreads burning wedges in a radius up to 125 meters from the blast point, thereby exposing more civilians and civilian objects to potential harm than a localized ground burst".
One of the worst accounts in the HRW report is this one, about a young man who was terribly wounded while trying to save his parents and a brother and a sister who were burning to death in a car hit by White Phosphorus:
"The Tel al-Hawa neighborhood in southeastern Gaza City is a relatively affluent residential area with wide streets and multi-story apartment buildings inhabited mostly by professionals and their families-what one resident called 'a secular stronghold' ... Ground fighting commenced when IDF troops began to enter the neighborhood from the south for limited periods around January 11, reportedly facing heavy mortar and gunfire from Palestinian armed groups. The fighting intensified around midnight on January 14-15, when Israeli forces advanced into Tel al-Hawa with troops and tanks One resident told Human Rights Watch: 'My daughter told me there was a car on fire with people in it. I looked out and saw a young man who had lost control of himself trying to push his way into the burning car. When I got to the car he had fallen down and he was on fire. The shelling was ongoing and I dragged him to an alley and tried to talk to him, but he couldn't talk. One of his eyes had burned away and he was horribly injured'. According to the resident, he and the wounded man (Mohammad al-Haddad, 25) were stuck in the alley for 90 minutes as the shelling continued, and because they feared Israeli snipers in the area. Once the shelling subsided, he and two young men carried the wounded man to a neighbor's car and then drove him to al-Shifa hospital. At 2:30 p.m. he returned to the car and found that it had partially melted and the gas tank had exploded In the smoking wreckage, he said, they found only a few bones of the four occupants. A piece of a skull and some teeth lay next to the vehicle, the resident said. Human Rights Watch spoke to al-Haddad in the burn unit at al-Shifa Hospital on January 27, and he corroborated the other testimony. According to Mohammad al-Haddad, the IDF started shelling Tel al-Hawa at 7 a.m. on January 15. He and his family waited in their home until 11 a.m., he said, when Israel announced it would begin a temporary unilateral ceasefire. At that point, they got into their gray 1996 Volkswagen Golf. He explained what happened next: 'We drove about 100 meters to the intersection at the end of our street, when we were hit. The power of the explosion threw me from the car. I lost consciousness, but then I went back to the car, and that's where (my neighbor) said he found me. After that I woke up in the hospital'. In addition to losing his left eye, al-Haddad suffered third-degree burns to his legs, hands and forehead, and a broken jaw. His younger brother Salam, 18, is the only other surviving member of the family he had left the family's house at 10 a.m., before the ceasefire began.
The HRW report continued, "Dr. Nafiz Abu Sha'baan, head of the burn and plastic surgery unit at al-Shifa Hospital, treated Mohammad al-Haddad upon arrival. Dr. Abu Sha`baan said that he had not treated any white phosphorus wounds prior to Operation Cast Lead and that the hospital did not classify injuries as caused by white phosphorus due to a lack of diagnostic tools to make that assessment. However, Dr. Abu Sha'baan told Human Rights Watch that Mohammad's injuries appeared consistent with wounds caused by white phosphorus. 'We think it's from white phosphorus because the burns are very deep', he said. 'We already excised burnt tissue and now his wounds are getting worse. When we saw him the first time the wounds were more superficial than they are now. We've got to operate again tomorrow to excise more tissue'.
Elsewhere in the report, HRW states that "Palestinian and foreign doctors who treated burn victims told Human Rights Watch about seeing intense and very deep burns. On some occasions the wounds began to burn again when cleaned, which is consistent with white phosphorus igniting on contact with oxygen. 'For the first time I'm seeing strange kinds of burns, very deep to the bone', one doctor at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City told Human Rights Watch. 'And they cause a bacterial infection unlike anything else'. Some seriously burned patients were evacuated to Egypt for treatment, especially if they needed skin grafts, because Gazan hospitals could not offer proper care. 'We have a lot of burns, actually chemical burns', a doctor in Cairo treating Gazans told Human Rights Watch. 'Most are third degree burns, which look like chemical burns and not ordinary burns. There is no skin and sometimes even no muscle'."
The White Phosphorus attacks recounted by Human Rights Watch in its just-released report, "Rain of Fire", were only part of horrors of war inflicted upon civilians in Gaza during the 22-day IDF Operation Cast Lead, 27 December to 18 January.
Khuza'a village, east of Khan Younis, and not far from the Israeli border, was attacked intermittently for over three days by White Phosphorus, from 10 to 13 January. Then, on the 13th of January, as their homes were collapsing above their heads, women and children who were waving white flags while trying to flee were shot dead by Israeli soldiers.
The HRW report said that "the village of Khuza'a is one of the closest Palestinian residential areas to Israel, in sight of IDF watchtowers. Open fields separate it from the armistice line. In a series of ground incursions between January 11 and 13, Israeli forces engaged Palestinian fighters, apparently killing three of them. At the same time, local officials said, 16 civilians died and dozens more were wounded, many by smoke inhalation from the extensive use of white phosphorus. On two separate occasions the IDF heavily used air-burst white phosphorus, artillery fired, killing one woman and injuring dozens of others, including one boy who burned his foot on a buried white phosphorus wedge 12 days after the attack. Residents and local human rights activists told Human Rights Watch that Palestinian fighters were active in the area, and an Islamic Jihad commander told the media that about one dozen fighters had directly engaged the IDF in Khuza'a. But these engagements appear to have been minimal, with the fighters mostly retreating whenever Israeli forces advanced. Even with the presence of these fighters, the IDF's extensive use of air-burst white phosphorus in a populated area was unlawful due to the munition's indiscriminate effects. In addition, if the purpose of the white phosphorus was to mask approaching troops, it is unclear why the IDF air-burst the white phosphorus over the neighborhood instead of ground-bursting it, which causes a denser smoke. The IDF's assault on Khuza'a began around 9:30 pm on January 10, with an intense artillery barrage in the area, including white phosphorus shells bursting over the al-Najjar district, inhabited primarily by a family of that name. According to three residents, interviewed separately, white phosphorus shells exploded above private homes, showering the area with burning wedges. Some homes in the area caught on fire, and neighbors helped each other to extinguish the flames" ...
The HRW report added that "The day after the attack, January 11, IDF forces moved into the al-Najjar district of Khuza'a for the first time. From approximately 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. they stayed on the edge of the village, residents and local human rights activists said, and several homes were bulldozed. The IDF returned around 3 a.m. on January 12 and destroyed some more homes, but withdrew again around noon. The next assault took place around midnight on January 13, with heavy shelling, including the extensive use of air-burst white phosphorus ... The widespread use of white phosphorus in the area caused many injuries from smoke inhalation, residents and local human rights activists said. This was confirmed by Dr. Yusuf Abu Rish, the director of Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Yunis, where many of the wounded were taken. He told Human Rights Watch that the hospital received more than 150 patients on January 13, and most of them were suffering from smoke inhalation. 'Even the ambulance bringing the victims was full of a foul odor', he said. Many of the victims suffered from a shortness of breath, hysteria and muscle spasms'. Twelve patients arrived at the hospital dead that day, Dr. Abu Rish said, but that was from all attacks in the Khan Yunis area and not just from white phosphorus. Human Rights Watch reviewed the hospital's records and found that on January 13 doctors there had treated 13 persons for what the hospital called chemical burns. Two of these patients required transfer to Egypt for treatment"... This account is recounted in full in the report which is posted on HRW's website here.
But that was only part of the picture.
On 14 January, Jessica Montell of B´Tselem was one of a group of leading Israeli human rights campaigners who told a press conference in Jerusalem that there was a "clear and present danger" to civilians during the IDF operation in Gaza. "The situation is intolerable and must be stopped", she said.
That morning, B'Tselem had issued an urgent media alert reporting that on 13 January, civilians -- women and children, waving white flags -- who trying to flee their homes during these attacks in which White Phosphorus was used in Khuza'a were shot dead by IDF soldiers. "Even if Hamas people are hiding at a hospital, as long as fire has not come from that hospital, by international law there is no justification for military action, and a hospital does not become a legitimate target", Montell told reporters.
Montell confirmed that her organization had received reports from eyewitnesses, which it transferred to the military, that a woman who walked out of her house in Khuza'a on 13th January, waving a white flag, had then been shot. Injured, and lying the ground where she had fallen, the woman had continued to wave the white flag until she was shot in the head. An ambulance which tried to reach the woman was fired at. Later in the day, a group of 30 civilians waving white flags was also shot at, and at least three more people died. Montell said she could not confirm greater numbers, but said that "This is not the first time that we get such information about the IDF shooting people who leave their houses with white flags, or waving white sheets." This report was recounted here in a post on the UN-Truth blog, on 14 January.
The HRW experts said in the report released today that "All of the white phosphorus shells that Human Rights Watch found came from the same lot manufactured in the United States in 1989 by Thiokol Aerospace, which was running the Louisiana Army Ammunition Plant at the time. In addition, on January 4, 2009, Reuters photographed IDF artillery units handling projectiles whose markings indicate that they were produced in the United States at the Pine Bluff Arsenal in September 1991. Israel's willingness to investigate its use of white phosphorus is welcome, but history suggests that the likelihood of an objective examination is slim. Previous IDF investigations have failed to look objectively at alleged laws of war violations by Israeli soldiers and commanders. In the case of Operation Cast Lead, military investigators have already suggested that soldiers and commanders did no wrong, even before the investigations are complete..."
Human Rights Watch recommended that Israel should establish its own independent commission of inquiry, and the United Nations should also appoint an independent international commission of inquiry, "to investigate credible allegations of violations of international humanitarian law in Gaza and southern Israel by the IDF and Hamas forces between December 27, 2008 and January 18, 2009, including the use of white phosphorus".
The HRW report also says that "The United States government, which supplied Israel with its white phosphorus munitions, should also conduct an investigation to determine whether Israel used it in violation of international humanitarian law".
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