BEIRUT: The Israeli military and Lebanon's powerful movement groups have been exchanging near-daily fire since Palestinians unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel sparked the Gaza war.
Lebanon has accused Israel of using controversial white phosphorus rounds, in attacks authorities say have harmed civilians and the environment.
White phosphorus, a substance that ignites on contact with oxygen, can be used to create smokescreens and to illuminate battlefields.
But the munition can also be used as an incendiary weapon and can cause fires, horrific burns, respiratory damage, organ failure and death.
"Israel's widespread use of white phosphorus in south Lebanon is putting civilians at grave risk and contributing to civilian displacement," Human Rights Watch said in a report released Wednesday.
The rights watchdog said it "verified the use of white phosphorus munitions by Israeli forces in at least 17 municipalities across south Lebanon since October", including five where it was "unlawfully used over populated residential areas".
Photographs taken on at least 10 separate occasions between October and April show eerie, octopus-like smoke plumes consistent with white phosphorus.
Lebanon's official National News Agency has repeatedly reported Israeli phosphorus bombing in south Lebanon, including in recent days, sometimes causing fires.
The agency said "phosphorus shells fell between the houses" in Hula on January 28 after "enemy artillery" targeted the village.
The hospital said that four civilians, two of them women, were admitted to intensive care for "asphyxiation and severe shortness of breath due to white phosphorus", including a man in his 70s and a woman in her 60s.
Lebanon's health ministry said on Wednesday it had registered 178 people as suffering from "chemical exposure due to white phosphorus" since October, a figure that does not distinguish between fighters and civilians.
Doctors at three other hospitals in south Lebanon told AFP their facilities had treated people with respiratory symptoms of white phosphorus exposure.
Brian Castner, a weapons investigator for Amnesty International's crisis team, said "using white phosphorus in areas populated by civilians can constitute indiscriminate attacks, which are a violation of international humanitarian law". "If civilians are injured or killed that can be a war crime," he added.
The cross-border hostilities have killed more than 450 people in Lebanon, most of them fighters but also including 88 civilians. — AFP
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