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• Tuesday, January 13, 2009 10:59 PM

  Human Rights Watch Confirms Israel is using white phosphorous on civilian populations

  from the nyt today:

  A resident of southwest Gaza City on Monday showed a reporter a piece of metal casing with the identifying number M825A1, which Marc Garlasco, a military analyst with Human Rights Watch, identified as white phosphorus, typically used for signaling, smoke screens and destroying enemy equipment.

  In recent years, experts and rights advocates have argued over whether its use to intentionally harm people violates international conventions.

  Major Dallal would not say whether Israel was using white phosphorus, but said, “The munitions we use are consistent with international law.”

  Still, white phosphorus can cause injury, and a growing number of Gazans report being hurt by it, including in Beit Lahiya, Khan Yunis, and in eastern and southwestern Gaza City. When exposed to air, it ignites, experts say, and if packed into an artillery shell, it can rain down flaming chemicals that cling to anything they touch.

  Luay Suboh, 10, from Beit Lahiya, lost his eyesight and some skin on his face Saturday when, his mother said, a fiery substance clung to him as he darted home from a shelter where his family was staying to pick up clothes.

  The substance smelled like burned trash, said Ms. Jaawanah, the mother who fled her home in Zeitoun, who had experienced it too. She had no affection for Hamas, but her sufferings were changing that. “Do you think I’m against them firing rockets now?” she asked, referring to Hamas. “No. I was against it before. Not anymore.”

  Note that last part. This entirely thing was not only immoral and human, it was just plain stupid on the part of Israel

  —omooex Read omooex's other letters
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