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Middle East conflict

Amnesty International points to Israel’s use of phosphorus munitions in Gaza

Amnesty International's Senior Crisis Response Advisor Donatella Rovera pointed out neither Israel nor Hamas was abiding by international law during military activities

© AP Photo/Ariel Schalit

LONDON, November 2. /TASS/. The Amnesty International human rights organization has confirmed that Israel is using white phosphorus munitions in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.

"We have geolocated and verified videos that show artillery shells being airbursted over Gaza and over Lebanon, deploying white phosphorus. <...> The evidence is quite incontrovertible," Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International's Senior Crisis Response Advisor, told Sky News.

She pointed out neither Israel nor Hamas was abiding by international law during military activities. According to Rovera, Israel is carrying out "indiscriminate and disproportionate bombardments that have killed thousands of children."

"It is quite scandalous to see the inaction of the international community in the face of a catastrophe, of a humanitarian crisis of these dimensions," Rovera stressed. "It is among the most intense and lethal conflicts we've seen in recent times," she added.

The Human Rights Watch international organization earlier confirmed Israel’s use of white phosphorus in Gaza.

Palestinian Justice Minister Mohammad Al-Shalaldeh said that Palestine had asked the International Criminal Court to look into Israel’s use of banned weapons in airstrikes on the enclave. Lebanon’s Acting Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib, in turn, said that his country had filed a complaint with the UN Security Council, saying that Israeli forces were shelling border areas with white phosphorus munitions. However, the Israeli authorities have denied using phosphorus weapons.

White phosphorus is used for military purposes in aerial bombs, aviation cluster ammunition, artillery shells and mines. Incendiary weapons are considered to be conventional but Protocol 3 of the 1980 UN Convention on Inhuman Weapons bans their use against civilians and civilian facilities, as well as in strikes on military targets in civilian areas.

Middle East conflict

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Top stories from the Russian press on Friday, November 29th

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets with Russian defense minister — KCNA

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Putin approves purchase of Russian Elevator Company from French grain trader Louis Dreyfus

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Lavrov clarifies Russia's position on Ukraine crisis to foreign diplomats — MFA

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Elite units of Syrian troops deployed to Aleppo to defeat gangs — newspaper

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Decision-making centers in Kiev could be targeted in Oreshnik strikes — Putin

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Syrian government army hits militants’ positions in southern Idlib — newspaper

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