Israel hit Lebanese residential buildings with white phosphorous – rights group

Israel maintains it uses the white phosphorus only as a smokescreen and not to target civilians.

A shell that appears to be white phosphorus from Israeli artillery explodes over a house in al-Bustan, last October.

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”.