On Oct. 11, streams of white smoke descended from the sky in Gaza City after an Israeli munition exploded above a hotel near the harbor. A similar squid-like plume erupted above the Gaza City neighborhood of Zeitoun that same day.
Two days earlier, reporters photographed Israeli soldiers near the Israel-Gaza border standing alongside a long-range artillery weapon and artillery shells containing a substance consistent with the smoke plumes seen in Gaza on Oct. 11: white phosphorus, an incendiary material whose use in densely populated civilian areas is prohibited by international law.
The world has been watching the deadly conflict unfold since Oct. 7, when Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza attacked communities in southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping around 250. In retaliation, Israel cut off all humanitarian aid, food, water, fuel and medical supplies for weeks, and began a military offensive that has killed over 15,000 Palestinians and injured more than 30,000 as of Dec. 2. Israel resumed bombing Gaza on Friday after a seven-day ceasefire ended.
While Israel denies using white phosphorus in Gaza, evidence suggests otherwise.
Markings on the white phosphorus munitions photographed Oct. 11 indicate they were manufactured at Arkansas’s Pine Bluff Arsenal, the only remaining manufacturer of white phosphorus munitions in North America. You can see the photo in this recent report from the human rights group Amnesty International.
Brian Castner, a weapons investigator at Amnesty International, told the Arkansas Times his group had “verified several videos that almost certainly show that white phosphorus smoke projectiles were used in Gaza.”
The videos, posted to social media in October, have been widely reported on by major news outlets.
A spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement in October that “the current accusation made against the IDF regarding the use of white phosphorus in Gaza is unequivocally false. The IDF has not deployed the use of such munitions.”
White phosphorus is a chemical substance that self-ignites upon exposure to oxygen and burns until it is deprived of oxygen, producing long-lasting, rapacious fires and resulting in excruciating injuries. Sometimes, buildings struck by white phosphorus will burn continuously for weeks and victims’ burns will reignite after medical dressings are taken off.
White phosphorus munitions are not outright prohibited by international humanitarian law, but their use is limited to specific situations. Militaries are supposed to use white phosphorus only as a means of illuminating the battlefield, providing a smokescreen for military troops on the ground and signaling targets — not as a weapon. Because it is so highly flammable, white phosphorus is subject to Protocol III of the Geneva Conventions, which prohibits the use of incendiary weapons against civilian targets and the use of air-delivered incendiary weapons in densely populated civilian areas.
And the damage it can cause is severe. Because white phosphorus is fat soluble, it burns through flesh and penetrates deep tissue. It is often absorbed into the bloodstream and can lead to organ damage and failure. The smoke it emits is noxious to breathe. The fatality rate of even minor burns from white phosphorus is high, and injuries associated with the substance are painful and can become worse over time, especially without medical attention.
The IDF used white phosphorus munitions in “Operation Cast Lead,” the Israeli offensive in Gaza in 2008 and 2009. In the aftermath of the 22-day war, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch delegates found white phosphorus wedges — often still burning — strewn across Gaza City. (The IDF initially denied using white phosphorus during Operation Cast Lead; it later admitted to using the munitions but said it had done so within the bounds of international law.) Amnesty International delegates also found fragments of white phosphorus artillery shells at a United Nations field operations headquarters, where the resulting fire destroyed millions of dollars worth of humanitarian supplies, and conducted numerous interviews with civilians who witnessed and/or suffered injuries from white phosphorus.
According to markings on the shells, the munitions were manufactured at the Pine Bluff Arsenal in October 1991.
Originally named the Chemical Warfare Arsenal, the Pine Bluff Arsenal was established in 1941. At one time it was home to a network of facilities and laboratories that developed, tested, and stored chemical and biological weapons. After the U.S. acceded to an international arms control treaty on chemical weapons in 1997, it committed to destroying and stopping production of most of its chemical weapons. The last of the chemical weapons stored at the Pine Bluff Arsenal were destroyed in 2010.
Today, the arsenal “serves a critical need for the domestic production of illuminating, infrared, phosphorus and smoke munitions,” according to its website. “It serves as the group technology center for illuminating and infrared munitions and is also the only place in the Northern Hemisphere where white phosphorus munitions are filled.”
The artillery shells photographed on Oct. 9 and included in the recent Amnesty report bear markings that indicate they were assembled and loaded at the Pine Bluff Arsenal in September 1991. According to a U.S. Army document cataloging types of ammunition, each shell contains 116 felt wedges soaked with white phosphorus. After being fired into the air, a charge within the shell disburses the wedges, which then ignite upon contact with the air and generate thick, white smoke that flows downward as they fall to the ground. When deployed by an artillery weapon, such as a howitzer, they can cover an area as large as a football field.
A spokesperson for the Pine Bluff Arsenal did not respond to questions about whether the Israeli military is using white phosphorus munitions manufactured at the facility.
Castner, the Amnesty International weapons investigator, said Israel appears to have switched to using other smoke rounds ”which do not have the same incendiary issues” since the incidents documented in early October.
That’s “perhaps a tacit admission of the problematic nature, and potential unlawfulness, of using WP in a densely populated area,” he said.
After the 2008-2009 war in Gaza, human rights groups and others filed a petition to Israel’s High Court of Justice about the use of white phosphorus. In 2013, Israel announced an unofficial change to its policy, pledging not to use the munitions except under two specific situations, which were only made known to the presiding judge. After the informal policy change, the court dismissed the petition.
Amnesty International and the group Human Rights Watch have compiled evidence that Israel has used white phosphorus artillery weapons since Oct. 7 in both northern Gaza and southern Lebanon, based on interviews and photographic evidence. At a recent press conference, the British-Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu-Sittah said he had seen many victims in Gaza with characteristic white phosphorus burns. But as is often the case with accusations of war crimes, it is difficult to gather accurate information until after fighting has completely stopped.
According to a congressional report published in March, Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S.foreign aid since World War II, receiving between $3 billion to $3.8 billion annually in the last decade, mostly in military aid. Since Oct. 7, President Biden has been seeking billions of dollars of additional military aid to be sent to the country and has authorized Israeli security forces to draw upon the U.S.’s emergency stockpile of weapons and ammunition held in Israel.
The Pine Bluff Arsenal is not the only weapons manufacturer in Arkansas. In October, the defense contractor RTX Corporation announced it was building a new facility in East Camden in partnership with an Israeli defense contractor that will manufacture missiles to be used for Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system and its U.S. counterpart, SkyHunter. This facility will be the latest addition to a sprawling industrial complex that includes other defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin.
