Israeli Defense Force (IDF) troops firing across the border at targets in Lebanon is far from uncommon, especially amid the ongoing escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, a recent report has claimed that Tel Aviv had no qualms about using white phosphorus ordnance in such attacks in October.
According to the Washington Post, remnants of three 155mm artillery shells fired at the village of Dahaira in southern Lebanon not far from the Lebanese-Israeli border were found by one of their journalists.
The three white phosphorus shells were reportedly fired by Israeli forces at Dahaira on October 16 during an attack that was later dubbed as the “black night” by the locals and which resulted in at least nine people being injured and at least four residences getting “incinerated.”
The ordnance in question was apparently the M825 smoke rounds that are generally used to set smokescreens or to mark targets. The shells were produced and supplied to Israel by the United States, though it was not immediately clear whether they were provided to the Israeli forces before or after the Gaza Strip crisis began on October 7.
Though such shells do have “legitimate use on the battlefield,” their contents can inflict “potentially fatal burns and respiratory damage,” and their use “near civilian areas could be prohibited under international humanitarian law,” the newspaper noted.