Human Rights Watch on Monday accused Israel of “illegally” using white phosphorus in residential areas of a city in southern Lebanon last week.
“The Israeli army illegally used white phosphorus munitions fired by artillery on homes on March 3, 2026, in the city of Yohmor, southern Lebanon,” the New York-based human rights group said in a report.
HRW added that it “verified and geolocated seven images showing white phosphorus munitions deployed in the air over a residential area of the city and civil defense workers responding to fires in at least two houses and a car in that area.”
In response, the Israeli military said it “is currently unaware of and cannot confirm the use of projectiles containing white phosphorus in Lebanon as claimed.”
The military said its policy was not to use projectiles containing white phosphorus “in densely populated areas, with certain exceptions.”
White phosphorus, a substance that ignites on contact with oxygen, can be used to create smoke screens and illuminate battlefields.
But ammunition can also be used as an incendiary weapon, causing fires, horrific burns, respiratory damage, organ failure and death.
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Israel, which has maintained attacks against Hezbollah despite the 2024 ceasefire, launched multiple waves of attacks across Lebanon since last week and sent ground troops to border areas after the Iran-backed group attacked it.
Since then, the Israeli military has repeatedly asked people living south of the Litani River, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of the Israeli border, to leave.
At least 394 people have been killed in Israeli attacks, Lebanese authorities said, registering more than half a million people displaced.
“The illegal use of white phosphorus by the Israeli military in residential areas is extremely alarming and will have dire consequences for civilians,” Ramzi Kaiss, a Lebanese researcher at HRW, said in the report.
“Israel should immediately stop this practice and states that supply weapons to Israel, including white phosphorus munitions, should immediately suspend military assistance and arms sales and pressure Israel to stop firing such munitions in residential areas,” he added.
Lebanese authorities and HRW have in recent years accused Israel of using controversial white phosphorus bullets in attacks that authorities say have harmed civilians and the environment.
Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said on Sunday that Israeli forces attacked the towns of Khiam and Tal Nahas, near the border with Israel, “with artillery and phosphorus shelling.”
Last month, Lebanon accused Israel of spraying the herbicide glyphosate on the Lebanese side of their shared border, with President Joseph Aoun condemning it as a “crime against the environment.”
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
