HRW looks closer at a number of specific IDF attacks on Gaza using white phosphorous.
Here is an attack by the IDF using white phosphorous on a UNRWA school, that the UN was using as a UN Shelter, this deliberate and direct attack on civilians and civilian objects killed two small children and the attacks even continued upon ambulances that tried to enter the school.
Who but Nazis carry out attacks on schools and defenseless men, women and children and humantarian workers liek this!
This attack exposes the Naziism of Nazi Israel!
Beit Lahiya UNRWA School
Around 6 a.m. on Saturday, January 17, the IDF starting firing at least three artillery shells,
which Human Rights Watch determined to be white phosphorus, over and in the immediate
vicinity of a UN-run elementary school in Beit Lahiya. At the time, the school was housing
roughly 1,600 people, who had sought refuge there from neighboring areas. Human Rights
Watch found no indication that IDF units or Palestinian armed groups were operating in the
area at the time.
The attack killed two young brothers when an already-detonated white phosphorus shell
landed in a classroom on the top floor of the school; the shell also severely injured their
mother and a cousin. The shelling also spread burning white phosphorus wedges all over
the school and surrounding area, wounding 12 other people, setting fire to a classroom
where displaced persons were sheltering, and damaging a nearby market.36 Human Rights
Watch visited the site on January 23, six days after the attack, and saw white phosphorus
wedges still burning when children dug them out of the sand.
According to two witnesses, around 3 a.m. the IDF began firing shells that appear to have
been white phosphorus some 600 meters north of the school. Nimr al-Maqusi, 50, an
unemployed civil servant who lives across the street from the school, said he saw the shells
explode above northern Beit Layiha every few minutes. “Wherever the pieces of the shells
landed, fires would suddenly ignite,” he recalled, reckoning that the shells were coming
from the southeast. 37 Yusuf Daoud, 45, an unemployed electrician who lives on the same
street, also across from the school, was watching the same explosions. Interviewed
separately, he told Human Rights Watch: “None of us at home were sleeping. We were all
afraid of the shelling that was coming in.”38
According to three witnesses – the two men who live across the street from the school and
another man who was inside the school at the time – no IDF forces were in the area at the
time. All of the witnesses said they saw at least three shells explode above the school.
‘Ali al-Shamali, 46, who works as an attendant at the school and is also a volunteer with the
local committee for displaced persons, said he saw a shell crash through the school roof
and land in a classroom on the top floor. “Less than ten minutes later, another phosphorus39 shell hit the school, and we rushed upstairs,” he said. “Then another three or
four white phosphorus shells hit, and one hit the market next to the school.”40
The shell that hit the classroom immediately killed two young brothers and severely
wounded their mother, al-Shamali said. The Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, based in
Gaza City, identified the two children as Bilal al-Ashqar, 5, and Muhammad al-Ashqar, 4.
According to a relative of the victims, Azhar al-Ashqar, the boysÂ’ mother, Nujud, 28, was
wounded in the head and right hand, which was later amputated at the hospital. The boysÂ’
cousin Mona, 18, was wounded in the leg and had it later amputated.42
Dozens of burning wedges landed in the courtyard and a classroom on the second floor
caught on fire, all of the witnesses said. On January 23, Human Rights Watch saw the
scorched classroom with burned clothes and other personal items inside.
The attack continued as ambulances and a fire engine arrived at the scene, the witnesses
said, while the displaced persons who had been staying in the school escaped to the streets
and nearby homes. Yusuf Daoud said he watched as more shells exploded over the school,
causing pieces of debris and flaming fragments to land on his balcony. “The smoke was
white with some yellow, and the odor was awful,” he said. “It seems to affect little children
and older people, especially.”
http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/iopt0309web.pdf
Sherri
