For two days, Shaymaa Ziara has been seeing messages in WhatsApp group chats from family and friends in Gaza about how to keep themselves safe from white phosphorous bombs that are allegedly part of Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza.
Ziara, who lives in Markham, Ont., said her father, three siblings and pregnant sister-in-law are currently in Gaza, moving from building to building in an effort to avoid the constant bombardments from Israel since hostilities began after Hamas militants launched a stunning and brutal attack in Israel on Saturday.
Videos of white phosphorus munitions allegedly deployed in Gaza have been circulating online for several days.
On Thursday, Human Rights Watch said it has confirmed that these munitions are being used over the Gaza City port using videos posted on Oct. 10 and 11, and interviewing two people from the al-Mina area in Gaza City who described the strikes.
Israel try not to piss away positive feelings towards them challenge IMPOSSIBLE.
They know the West will support them no matter what. This is actually not the first time they use white phosphorus in Gaza, and nobody did anything about it.
True all of the whinging about possible civilian deaths while hitting the military targets in Gaza but you just aren’t going to convince anyone that is backing Israel to stop. Hamas murdered and took hostage of plenty of other nations that are friendly to Israel. Releasing hostages would probably be the start of some form of talks but we’re nowhere near that even if Hamas is capable of mercy that we are expecting Israel to have.
“Possible” bruh we’re past that point already.
Some civilians will die in a war in such a densely populated area. No one has figured out how to completely eliminate that. War sucks.
Not actively trying to raise civilian casualties would be a good start.
I don’t think killing civilians is the goal of Israel but it definitely is the goal of Hamas. The civilians could reject Hamas but they actually support them pretty strongly It seems.
Bro have you heard of Israel giving evacuation locations then bombing those locations? Bombing hospitals? Giving an evacuation order that, even if carried successfully, would cause untold amounts of death and suffering?
Well they kinda fucked themselves in accepting Hamas as the legitimate government which means they are in fact bound by international human rights and war crime laws.
Absolutely. Biden has been a Zionist for longer than I’ve been alive. The western powers can’t be convinced, not because of Hamas recent actions - but because it took a lot less to convince them, and they’ve held those beliefs before through and after Hamas’ most recent attack.
People dont realize the effect of white phosporus to human
It’s completely allowed by the rules of war. You’re just not allowed to use it to target civilians themselves. I saw that it was used in an open field near the border where there was heavy fighting against Hamas Terrorists.
Yes, that’s what the article says, but:
#A need for legal clarity on use
International law does not classify white phosphorous as a chemical or incendiary weapon, and its use in war is not prohibited, said Houchang Hassan-Yari, professor emeritus of politics and international relations at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ont. But its impact when used in civilian areas muddies the waters.
“Generally speaking, the bomb is used to blind the anti-air system of the other side because the fume that it generates covers the attackers,” Hassan-Yari said. “But the consequence if the bomb is used against the humans, many believe is a war crime. So it’s not very clear cut … and there is a need for clarity by UN agencies to confirm whether this bomb should … be identified as a chemical weapon.”
##What counts as a chemical weapon and how to tell who’s using one
According to groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, the use of white phosphorous bombs, which ignite when in contact with oxygen, in densely populated areas — like the 365 sq. km Gaza Strip that is home to more than two million people — violates international humanitarian law.
But what? Where are all of the Muslim countries railing against Russia for using it to burn whole villages of Ukraines?
Idk, I haven’t read up on it. But for one, where are all the western countries railing against Israel for using it?
It’s a human rights organization that’s bringing this up not a country so that is irrelevant.
And why the fuck does it even matter? White phosphorus is bad, end of story.
It’s nasty if it gets in contact with humans but that doesn’t mean that it is inherently evil. They haven’t crossed some sort of line in weapons ethics. It’s an accepted tool on the battlefield with multiple uses having nothing to do with directly harming people. It’s like saying water is bad because you drank several gallons and your brain swelled up from the osmotic pressure. Heck even flamethrowers are perfectly fine to use in war.
Refusing to use a less lethal tool seems pretty evil.
I know it’s a great smokescreen but that doesn’t make it okay.
Just because the current main users of white phosphorus are the US, Israel, and Russia. Doesn’t make it an accepted and especially an acceptable tool.
Heck even flamethrowers are perfectly fine to use in war. Sure, but not indiscriminately on civilians.
But you’re trying to argue that it passes some ethical boundary even being used in its most mundane things. It’s fine if we differ in that opinion.
Given how closely the US and the Biden administration has aligned itself with the Israel, how rapidly they moved the carrier group into position, and how gleefully and passionately they rushed to Netanyahu‘s side to express complete solidarity, I can only assume that the US is complicit in this and every other war crime taking place.
The US is Definitely losing any moral argument they have had against Russia the past year.
The US doesn’t have and doesn’t need a moral argument. Ukraine has the moral argument, and we support them out of more or less a business interest. What matters most is that we the people support Ukraine - that cynical arms dealing is just an added bonus. (And Ukraine is making much of its own ammunition now!)
The graph at the bottom of the article…
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