“We are aware of this article and of course we are concerned. We’re going to ask questions to find out a little bit more,” John Kirby, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, told reporters.
The US government said it was “concerned” on Monday after the publication of a Washington Post article which revealed, after analysis of fragments, that Israel’s military used US-made white phosphorus munitions in artillery strikes in southern Lebanon in October, causing them to char. houses.
“We are aware of this article and of course we are concerned. We’re going to ask questions to find out a little bit more,” John Kirby, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, told reporters.
White phosphorus munitions, by definition incendiary, are prohibited from being used against civilians or civilian targets, but not against military targets, under the Third Protocol to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) signed in 1980 in Geneva.
There are also other “legitimate” uses of white phosphorous munitions, such as “illuminating” the field or creating “smoke screens to cover movements,” John Kirby recalled.
“Whenever we supply material like white phosphorus to another military we do so with the full expectation that it will be used for legitimate purposes under the law of war,” he added.
“White phosphorus can be used legally at the military level, but not against civilians,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller also reminded, adding that the Biden administration is trying to gather “further information.”
The US is Israel’s main supplier of military hardware and President Joe Biden has pledged that Washington will support it in the war against Hamas.
Lebanon has accused Israel for weeks of using white phosphorus munitions in strikes against Hezbollah fighters in the south of the country, causing massive fires.
The NGO Amnesty International said for its part that it has “evidence of illegal use by Israel of white phosphorus (ammunition) between October 10 and 16” and called for a “war crime investigation”.
In mid-October, Human Rights Watch (HRW) also accused Israel of using white phosphorus munitions in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
“We deny these accusations,” they are “undoubtedly false,” an Israeli army spokesman said at the time.
Source :Skai
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