A new video appears to show an Israeli aircraft dropping white phosphorus on a town in southern Lebanon on Sunday night, ahead of a ground offensive that began on Monday.
Lebanese commentators shared the video – which Novara Media has verified – of an aircraft releasing a substance on a region flanked by mountains, just days after Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that Israel unlawfully used the corrosive substance against Lebanese civilians on 3 March.
On Monday morning, Israel said it had launched ‘limited and targeted ground operations against Hezbollah’ in southern Lebanon, Al Jazeera reported.
White phosphorus is a corrosive, chemical substance dispersed in artillery shells, bombs and rockets that ignites when exposed to oxygen and causes indiscriminate damage, burning through human tissue and other materials alike. Its offensive use against civilians is illegal under international law.
“The Israeli military’s unlawful use of white phosphorus over residential areas is extremely alarming and will have dire consequences for civilians,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at HRW, earlier this month. “The incendiary effects of white phosphorous can cause death or cruel injuries that result in lifelong suffering.”
Novara Media has geolocated the explosion to the small town of Khiam, in keeping with reports from the ground in Lebanon.
As a Hezbollah stronghold, on high ground and close to the border, Khiam is seen as a key strategic target by Israel. According to Al Jazeera Arabic, air strikes are ongoing, with at least three hitting the town on Monday night.
Khiam is around 20km away from Yohmor, where HRW verified the use of white phosphorus earlier this month. The pattern of the explosion seen in the video is consistent with other incidents of white phosphorus fire by the IDF, previously documented by HRW in Gaza and Lebanon.
White phosphorus has multiple uses, some of which are not unlawful. It can legally be used to obscure, mark, signal or directly attack military personnel. But Israel has a long history of using the deadly substance in an illegal manner, and deploying techniques – including “air-bursting projectiles” – that cause maximum devastation to civilians, according to HRW, by spreading the substance over as large an area as possible.
Online, some commenters have contended that the ammunition appears to have been dropped between Khiam and the mountains themselves, therefore avoiding civilians. However, in the 15km between the town of Khiam and the mountains, seen in the backdrop of the video, are several villages: Mari, Darjat and Halta.
Independent journalist Sarah Abdullah, who shared the video on Sunday night, wrote on X: “Israel is dropping white phosphorus on the village of Khiam in South Lebanon. On homes. On civilian areas.
“This is a war crime. Not a peep from the international community. Not a word from the International Criminal Court.”
HRW has previously accused the Israeli military of the widespread use of white phosphorus between October 2023 and May 2024 across border villages in southern Lebanon, killing, severely injuring and displacing civilians.
In 2013, the Israeli High Court rejected a petition to ban the use of white phosphorus on civilian populations after HRW exposed the IDF’s unlawful use of the substance during the 2008-2009 Gaza war.
Subsequent Israeli military investigations have held no one responsible for these international human rights violations.
There have been at least 859 people killed in Israeli attacks in Lebanon since the start of Israel’s expanded offensive on March 2.
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