• hassanmckusick@lemmy.discothe.quest
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    White phosphorus munitions can legally be used on battlefields to make smoke screens, generate illumination, mark targets or burn bunkers and buildings. Because it has legal uses, white phosphorus is not banned as a chemical weapon under international conventions, but it can cause serious burns and start fires.

    You just can’t use it to hit people (I don’t think you’re allowed set buildings on fire to kill people either)

    And Israel is on thin ice because they used white phosphorous before in '09 (not claiming they used it illegally because I can’t find a source that will say one way or the other)

    • 0ryX@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_phosphorus_munitions#International_law Article 1 of Protocol III of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons defines an incendiary weapon as "any weapon or munition which is primarily designed to set fire to objects or to cause burn injury to persons through the action of flame, heat, or combination thereof, produced by a chemical reaction of a substance delivered on the target". Article 2 of the same protocol prohibits the deliberate use of incendiary weapons against civilian targets (already forbidden by the Geneva Conventions)