MOSCOW, October 13. /TASS/. Human Rights Watch (HRW), an international rights organization, accused Israel of using white phosphorus during its military operations in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip in a report, published on its website.

White phosphorus is used in air-delivered bombs, cluster munitions, artillery shells and mines. Although incendiary weapons are classified as conventional weapons, but Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons’ Protocol (III) prohibiting Incendiary Weapons bars its use against civilians and in strikes on military targets located in residential areas. Rights organizations worldwide have long been calling for banning phosphorus munitions as a form of chemical weapons.

"Human Rights Watch verified videos taken in Lebanon and Gaza on October 10 and 11, 2023, respectively, showing multiple airbursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over the Gaza City port and two rural locations along the Israel-Lebanon border," the organization said in a report, posted on its website.

HRW underscores that the use of white phosphorus in densely populated areas of the Gaza Strip creates increased risks for the civilian population and runs counter to the international humanitarian law.

Tensions in the Middle East flared up again after Hamas militants infiltrated Israel from the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian movement described its attack as a response to the actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. Israel declared a state of readiness for war, announced a total blockade of Gaza and started carrying out strikes on the Palestinian enclave, as well as on certain areas in Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank. Over 1,500 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,200 have suffered wounds; in Israel, the death toll stands at about 1,500 and almost 4,000 people have been wounded.