Israel rains fire with phosphorus shells
From The TimesDecember 5, 2008
Israeli artillery shells explode with a chemical agent designed to create smokescreen for ground forces
Israel is believed to be using controversial white phosphorus shells to screen its assault on the heavily populated Gaza Strip yesterday. The weapon, used by British and US forces in Iraq, can cause horrific burns but is not illegal if used as a smokescreen.
As the Israeli army stormed to the edges of Gaza City and the Palestinian death toll topped 500, the tell-tale shells could be seen spreading tentacles of thick white smoke to cover the troops’ advance. “These explosions are fantastic looking, and produce a great deal of smoke that blinds the enemy so that our forces can move in,” said one Israeli security expert. Burning blobs of phosphorus would cause severe injuries to anyone caught beneath them and force would-be snipers or operators of remote-controlled booby traps to take cover. Israel admitted using white phosphorus during its 2006 war with Lebanon.
The use of the weapon in the Gaza Strip, one of the world’s mostly densely population areas, is likely to ignite yet more controversy over Israel’s offensive, in which more than 2,300 Palestinians have been wounded.
The Geneva Treaty of 1980 stipulates that white phosphorus should not be used as a weapon of war in civilian areas, but there is no blanket ban under international law on its use as a smokescreen or for illumination. However, Charles Heyman, a military expert and former major in the British Army, said: “If white phosphorus was deliberately fired at a crowd of people someone would end up in The Hague. White phosphorus is also a terror weapon. The descending blobs of phosphorus will burn when in contact with skin.”
The Israeli military last night denied using phosphorus, but refused to say what had been deployed. “Israel uses munitions that are allowed for under international law,” said Captain Ishai David, spokesman for the Israel Defence Forces. “We are pressing ahead with the second stage of operations, entering troops in the Gaza Strip to seize areas from which rockets are being launched into Israel.”
The civilian toll in the first 24 hours of the ground offensive — launched after a week of bombardment from air, land and sea— was at least 64 dead. Among those killed were five members of a family who died when an Israeli tank shell hit their car and a paramedic who died when a tank blasted his ambulance. Doctors at Gaza City’s main hospital said many women and children were among the dead and wounded.
The Israeli army also suffered its first fatality of the offensive when one of its soldiers was killed by mortar fire. More than 30 soldiers were wounded by mortars, mines and sniper fire.
White phosphorus: the smoke-screen chemical that can burn to the bone
— White phosphorus bursts into a deep-yellow flame when it is exposed to oxygen, producing a thick white smoke
— It is used as a smokescreen or for incendiary devices, but can also be deployed as an anti-personnel flame compound capable of causing potentially fatal burns
— Phosphorus burns are almost always second or third-degree because the particles do not stop burning on contact with skin until they have entirely disappeared — it is not unknown for them to reach the bone
— Geneva conventions ban the use of phosphorus as an offensive weapon against civilians, but its use as a smokescreen is not prohibited by international law
— Israel previously used white phosphorus during its war with Lebanon in 2006
— It has been used frequently by British and US forces in recent wars, notably during the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Its use was criticised widely
— White phosphorus has the slang name “Willy Pete”, which dates from the First World War. It was commonly used in the Vietnam era
Source: Times archives
GPn-35 the thing is that they dont seem to be in a mood where they will adopt a peace agreement and stop their killing instinct prevail over them. They can only be stopped if and only if the Arab countries develop a minimum deterence force against them so that Israel might be thinking hundred times before attacking any of its Arab neighbours. The question is that do Arab countries have the ability and capability to do so?. They have the money for sure but what they lack?.
Probably Pakistan might have suffered the same but because we have a very good Army, no one can dare come and capture any part of our land.
Israel tried to launch a limited air attack in 80s on our nuclear facilty from Inida but both of their F15 were shot down inside Pakistan by our airforce.
the zionist need to fly back to the countries they came from, before the 1930's. This is the only justice I understand.
As for those who believe in the 'israeli state' next to the Palestinean state, then 'israel' has to commit to the UN resolution of the Security Council, concerning the borders of 1967.
If it doesn't, then somebody must punish it like Iraq was punished.
If the UN is not taking action, then their people should not feel safe or peaceful until they end the occupation.
Pure & simple justice
even though the freak jewish state is the 'adopted' son of the US- and despite its excesses and unchecked crimes against the children of this ummah - the jews can be easily defeated.....however the muslims need to appoint their sincere ruler and gather around him ; be prepared to sacrifice all that is dear to them to enable Islam to be established; the muslims to be unified and call and support the islamic armies to liberate the muslim lands from the squalor of her enemies.
the responsibility of implemented the solution from Islam upon the situation in gaza, iraq, kahsmir, afghanistan etc lies with all the capable muslims.
Only Israel? Give me a break.
Israel should abide by the international laws.
Who are Hamas?
Sheikh Ahmad Yassin's Hamas founder
For more reading on his profile:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4653706.stm
Current leadership
Hamas' Mahmoud Zahhar
For more reading on his profile:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4653706.stm
Mahmoud Zahhar is believed to be the leader of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Group, Hamas, in Gaza.
A surgeon who teaches medicine at the Islamic University in Gaza, Mr Zahhar helped found the group in 1987 with Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
He became a member of the "collective leadership" of the militant group in 2004 after Sheikh Yassin and Abdel-Aziz Rantissi were assassinated by Israel.
Mr Zahhar is one of Hamas' ideological leaders and is considered to be more hardline than Ismail Haniya, who headed the group's national list of candidates for the January legislative elections.
Hamas PM Ismail Haniya
For more reading on his profile:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4655146.stm
Ismail Haniya was a relatively unknown figure until he headed the Hamas list that won the Palestinian legislative election of January 2006.
He had risen within the Islamic group as a close associate of its spiritual leader, the late Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, whose office he ran.
He is considered a pragmatist in the movement's ranks who is more open to dialogue with Israel.
However, he has insisted that Israel would have to recognise Palestinian rights before talks could begin.
=============================================
Who are the Hamas?
Hamas takes its name from the Arabic initials for the Islamic Resistance Movement.
Branded a terrorist organization by Israel, the US and the EU, it is seen by its supporters as a legitimate fighting force defending Palestinians from a brutal military occupation.
It is the largest Palestinian militant Islamist organisation, formed in 1987 at the beginning of the first intifada, or Palestinian uprising against Israel's occupation in the West Bank and Gaza.
The group's short-term aim has been to drive Israeli forces from the occupied territories. To achieve this it has launched attacks on Israeli troops and settlers in the Palestinian territories and against civilians in Israel.
It also has a long-term aim of establishing an Islamic state on all of historic Palestine - most of which has been contained within Israel's borders since its creation in 1948.
For years the organisation was divided into two main spheres of operation:
* social programmes like building schools, hospitals and religious institutions
* militant operations carried out by Hamas' underground Iss al-Din Qassam Brigades.
But it became increasingly involved in Palestinian factional politics, both in the occupied territories and with a political branch in exile.
One of its leaders-in-exile, Khalid Meshaal, was the target of a bungled Israeli assassination attempt in Jordan in 1997.
King Hussein was outraged by Israel's action and was only placated when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu released Hamas's jailed spiritual leader and founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
While King Hussein tolerated Hamas's presence, his successor King Abdullah II had the group's headquarters closed down and senior figures expelled to Qatar.
Hamas has remained outside the main Palestinian political structure of the PLO, but it took part in - and won - Palestinian Authority (PA) legislative elections in the occupied territories in 2006.
Veto power
Hamas came to prominence after the first intifada as the main Palestinian opponent of the Oslo accords - the US-sponsored peace process that oversaw the gradual and partial removal of Israel's occupation in return for Palestinian guarantees to protect Israeli security.
Despite numerous Israeli operations against it and clampdowns by Yasser Arafat's Palestinian National Authority, Hamas found it had an effective power of veto over the process by launching suicide attacks.
In February and March 1996, it carried out several suicide bus bombings, killing nearly 60 Israelis, in retaliation for the assassination in December 1995 of Hamas bomb maker Yahya Ayyash.
The bombings were widely blamed for turning Israelis off the peace process and bringing about the election of right-winger Mr Netanyahu who was a staunch opponent of the Oslo accords.
In the post-Oslo world, most particularly following the failure of US President Bill Clinton's Camp David summit in the summer of 2000 and the second intifada which followed shortly thereafter, Hamas gained power and influence as Israel steadily destroyed the infrastructure of the Palestinian Authority.
In towns and refugee camps besieged by the Israeli army, Hamas organised clinics and schools which served Palestinians who felt entirely let down by the corrupt and inefficient Palestinian Authority dominated by its secularist rival, Fatah.
The armed struggle
Many Palestinians cheered the wave of Hamas suicide attacks (and those of fellow militants Islamic Jihad and the secular al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade) in the first years of the intifada.
They saw "martyrdom" operations as the best way to avenge their own losses and counter Israel's unchecked settlement building in the West Bank.
After the death of Fatah leader Yasser Arafat in 2004, the Palestinian Authority was taken over by Mahmoud Abbas, a vocal opponent of attacks on Israel.
He viewed Hamas rocket fire, the militants' weapon of choice in recent years, as counterproductive, inflicting little damage on Israel but provoking a harsh response by the Israeli military.
When Hamas scored a landslide victory in the Palestinian Authority legislative elections in 2006, the stage was set for a bitter power struggle with Fatah.
Hamas resisted all efforts to get it to sign up to previous agreements with Israel, as well as to recognise Israel's legitimacy and to give up the armed struggle.
It has remained steadfast to its pledge never to sign up to a permanent ceasefire while Israel occupies Palestinian territory and its troops are responsible for the deaths of Palestinians.
It did, however, offer a 10-year truce in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from territories occupied in 1967: the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.
But it has not relinquished its assertion that Palestinian refugees from 1948 should be allowed to return to homes in what has become Israel - a move that threatens Israel's very existence as a Jewish state.
Assassinations
Over the years Hamas has lost many members in Israeli assassinations and security sweeps.
The paraplegic and visually impaired Sheikh Yassin was killed in a missile attack on 22 March 2004.
Khaled Meshaal, now based in Syria, became the group's overall leader. Abdul Aziz al-Rantissi emerged as Hamas leader in Gaza before he too was assassinated six weeks later on 17 April.
Other prominent Hamas officials killed by the Israelis include Ismail Abu Shanab, in August 2003, and Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades leader Salah Shehada, in July 2002.
Shehada's successor, Muhammad Deif - whom Israel blames for the 1996 bombings - has escaped several attempts on his life.
More moderate political figures also emerged as significant players within the movement.
One of them was Ismail Haniya, a former aide to Sheikh Yassin, who was appointed to a "collective leadership" in the occupied territories along with the more hardline Mahmoud Zahhar and Said al-Siyam.
Facing the electorate
Hamas's decision to stand in PA legislative council elections in 2006 was a major departure for the movement and had a profound impact on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Top figures said the move reflected Hamas's importance in the Palestinian sphere and the need for it to address failing political structures beset by corruption, inefficiency and lost credibility.
It did not, they insisted, imply any acceptance of a two-state solution to the conflict, although Hamas opposition to the Oslo accords had kept it out of previous elections.
Aside from its much-vaunted incorruptibility, Hamas campaigned forcefully on its claim that Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in the summer of 2005 was a victory for its commitment to armed conflict with the Israelis.
But if Hamas leaders thought its parliamentary victory would bestow greater credibility on them in the eyes of the international community - or if they thought in any way that they would be given any more leeway - they were mistaken.
The new government was subjected to tough economic and diplomatic sanctions by Israel and its allies in the West.
Skirmishes in Gaza with the Fatah-dominated PA security forces escalated to all-out war, in which the well-armed and better-disciplined Qassam Brigades eventually ousted their rivals in May 2007.
Hamas security control made Gaza a more calm and orderly place than it had been for months. But Israel tightened its blockade on the Strip and - despite a multilateral ceasefire in June 2008 - rocket fire and Israeli raids continued to provide provocations for more violence by each side.
And on the diplomatic level, the Palestinians faced their biggest set-back for decades.
With Hamas in charge of Gaza and the pro-Fatah PA operating in the West Bank - and neither side engaging properly with the other - the aspiration of an independent Palestinian seemed further away than ever.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/1654510.stm
Published: 2009/01/04 15:53:06 GMT
© BBC MMIX
that's funny logic from a guy whose daily meal is grilled dogs :-)
I was referring to the environment you come from!
Want to read my comment? It's already posted in the other thread!
We are ALL still proud of the brave men of HAMAS
"hiding like dog with the women"
and why are you cursing the dogs? Isn't this your daily meal in where you come from?
here you go:
http://palestinian.ning.com/forum/topics/the-other-side-of-the-story
Will the Global Situation continue like this???????i believe there is nothing for ever, what changes or future do you expect????
"Everything in this book may be wrong." Illusions: The Adventures of The Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach
the jews are cowards by nature and this is a fact...an islamic army led by a sincere leader; the fights for Islam can easily end the jewish army's so called 'invincibility'...the muslims defeated so many armies who were superior in numbers; arms and resources...the obstacles to the deployment of the muslim armies are the leaders that have been imposed upon the muslim` masses by the west...
hamas has been supported by israel in the past against the PLO and other palestenian nationalist organisations, it seems like they are israeli bedfellows, giving israel the opportunity to commit this barbaric act of terrorism.
a few brave & free men from Hizbullah have humilated the israeli war-machine a few months back?
This 'mighty israeli army' is all propaganda, my friend.
Even their nuclear bombs would not overcome the power of arab armies.
Anyway, if they think of using nuclear bombs, then we should encourage Iran to have the same, so that it can participate in this (imaginary) war
The slight problem with your theory is that Israel will make mincemeat out of them..
The Arabs know that even with Egypt, they are no match for Isreal.. Sad fact of life..
such decisions are taken by only 5 countries.
as you can see, the bloody USA these days, is blocking any such resolution.
I still blame all arab leaders, though. Yes sir, I do. Do you know why? They should do like the USA when it invade Iraq; don't wait for a UN resolution. Just take the initiative & attack israel from all sides and make every arab citizen proud
.
You are as bad as timtan.. You take one side without looking at the overall picture or cause and effect.
The Arab leaders are just as to blame as the UN and the West.
"What will World Leaders do?
They can only "REQUEST" Israel to end the war"
If the UN members have a little bit of honor & dignity, they can do with Israel the same thing they did with Iraq when it invaded Kuwait!
They can use force/war to make Israel commit to UN resolutions concerning the land
chemical nor conventional weapons, it still kill people.
A valid point and worth pondering..
Self interests and politics make for strange bed fellows. It was both the West and the Middle East who cultivated Sadam Hussein and turned a blind eye to the suffering of the kurds. I remember protesting when the International Red Cross was sent details of the chemical usage and everyone turned a deaf ear.
Whether Israel or Hamas, we as human beings should never condone attrocities against mankind.
What will World Leaders do?
They can only "REQUEST" Israel to end the war.
If Israel refuse to end the war then what?
It would be way too optimistic of them to expect Iran to attack Israel!
against the Kurds, and thousands of Arabs still love him"
And America nuked the Japs, used gas in 'Nam, Cambodia,Iraq, Afghanistan...etc..etc, and millions of westerners still loved America
I also was happy with modern technology when those airplanes crashed into the world trade towers
Was Also used in the July 2006 war in Lebanon... and it caused a huge controversy
WYSIWYG
And Saddam Hussein used gas against the Kurds, and thousands of Arabs still love him.
timtam they should put that shells into your A*SS and explode it.
Poverty is not for the sake of hardship. No, it is there because nothing exists but God. Poverty unlocks the door -- what a blessed key!
- Jalaluddin al-Rumi
Thanks for the info. It is beyond words what is happening and the world leaders will just stand back and debate until it is tooooo late. So unjust.