Israel accused of using white phosphorus in Lebanon as potential for all-out war ratchets up
The potential for all-out war between Israel and Lebanon seems to have dramatically moved up a notch – or more – over the past few days.
And the Israeli prime minister has done nothing to dissuade that notion – telling his troops on the northern border with Lebanon on Wednesday that they are prepared for “very strong action” inside Lebanon.
“Yesterday the land was burning here,” Benjamin Netanyahu said in Kiryat Shmona to his audience of soldiers and emergency workers.
“I’m glad you put it out, but the ground was also on fire in Lebanon. Whoever thinks that he will hurt us and we will sit idly by is making a big mistake. We are prepared for a very strong action in the north. One way or another we will restore security to the north.”
Benjamin Netanyahu visits Kiryat Shmona after fires in the area
His words follow days of escalation in the cross-border attacks between the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and Hezbollah fighters.
There have been large fires in several areas in northern Israel after rockets fired by Hezbollah – and claims of white phosphorus being used by the Israelis on Lebanese towns in the same period.
And both the Israeli and Arab media have been awash with worries and dire warnings about the possibility of all-out war on the Lebanese front.
There are multiple reports of serious diplomatic warnings from several Western envoys about an imminent Israeli attack on Lebanon. “Prepare for war,” one is thought to have told the Lebanese authorities.
The Israeli prime minister is not the only one to be engaging in increasingly tough rhetoric.
A man uses a hose to put out fires near Kiryat Shmona after rocket attacks from Lebanon. Pic: Reuters
His war cabinet met on Tuesday night amid a video message from his security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir who called for war, saying: “Now the IDF’s job is to destroy Hezbollah.”
He added: “They’re burning us here. All Hezbollah strongholds should be burned, they should be destroyed. War!”
The Times of Israel also reported the IDF chief of staff Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi as saying that Israel is close to making a decision about how to deal with Hezbollah’s daily attacks on the northern border and insisted his soldiers were trained and prepared for an operation across the border.
The spike in cross-border tension comes as the global human rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) released the findings of an investigation saying Israel’s widespread use of white phosphorus in southern Lebanon was “putting civilians at grave risk and contributing to civilian displacement”.
The HRW report verified the use of white phosphorus munitions by Israeli forces in at least 17 municipalities across south Lebanon after focussing on the weeks and months immediately after the Hamas attack inside Israel on 7 October.
It included five municipalities where airburst munitions were unlawfully used over populated residential areas, HRW says.
Israel has been accused of using white phosphorus against Lebanon
The HRW investigation states: “Under international humanitarian law, the use of airburst white phosphorus is unlawfully indiscriminate in populated areas and otherwise does not meet the legal requirement to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian harm.”
In an interview from Beirut, HRW researcher Ramzi Kaiss told Sky News that Israel should immediately stop its use of white phosphorus in populated residential areas and warned its allies: “This documentation should raise the alarm with states that are providing arms to Israel because there is a real risk they are being used in violation of international law – either in Gaza or Lebanon.”
Our team’s own inquiries carried out over several trips to Lebanon and spread over several months back up HRW’s investigations.
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We visited a number of border towns and communities in south Lebanon, travelled along the border with UN peacekeepers and visited camps of displaced families and farmers who had fled their homes on the border.
Several people spoke to us about the use of what they believed to be white phosphorus.
One displaced farmer called Mustafa Hijazi told us: “When the phosphorus is fired it drops something like powder, it sprays something which looked yellow and it has a bad smell… all our land in the south is affected by it. In the beginning of the war they [Israelis] dropped a lot of this phosphorus.”
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Displaced farmer Mustafa Hijazi
On another visit to southern border towns, we found residents who did not want to be identified in Kefar Kela who showed us pictures from an attack the night before we arrived.
The images captured on their mobile phones looked very much like white phosphorus being fired from Israel.
One resident told us the villagers believed the Israelis were using it to force the communities to leave the area as well as destroy their farming land.
Suspected white phosphorus
“They’re trying to suffocate us, start fires, and burn all our land,” he said. “Why do they want to hit us? Why do they want to hit a civilian area? Are they even allowed to hit civilian areas?”
On an escorted trip with UN peacekeepers, we witnessed large swathes of burned land ourselves – trees burned through right to the canopy but we were unable to verify on an accompanied trip through volatile areas just who or what had started the fires.
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When we contacted the IDF about our findings and those of Human Rights Watch, a spokesperson vehemently denied the illegal use of white phosphorus.
The statement sent to us said: “The primary smoke-screen shells used by the IDF do not contain white phosphorus. Like many Western militaries, the IDF also possess smoke-screen shells that include white phosphorus that are legal under international law.
“These shells are used by the IDF for creating smoke screens and not for targeting or causing fires and are not defined under law as incendiary weapons.
“IDF procedures require that such shells are not used in densely populated areas, subject to certain exceptions. This complies and goes beyond the requirements of international law.”
Alex was reporting with cameraman Jake Britton, specialist producer Chris Cunningham and Lebanon producer Jihad Junaid
In a simple breezeblock and cement building, cholera patients are attached to drips as they lie sprawled on hard, wooden beds.
In one section, two young boys stare into the distance through listless eyes. They are very poorly, the staff tell us, but now they are here, they will survive.
Two boys at the Fontaine Hospital
Medical staff check on their patients in the relatively cool interior of the wards, while outside the sun beats down on the grounds of the rough and ready interconnected buildings of the Fontaine Hospital in Port-au-Prince.
The hospital is built amid the slums in an area of Haiti’s capital known as Cite Soleil – or Sun City.
‘All the infants are malnourished’ at the Fontaine Hospital, writes Sky’s Stuart Ramsay
This suburb is widely regarded to be the birthplace of the gangs of Port-au-Prince, and this section of the city has been violent and dangerous for decades.
Civil society doesn’t function here. Indeed, the Fontaine Hospital is the only medical facility still operating in the gang-controlled areas of Cite Soleil.
Without it, the people who live here would have no access to doctors or medical care.
How did gangs take over Haiti? Watch Q&A with Stuart Ramsay
I’m standing in the cholera ward with Jose Ulysse, the hospital’s founder. He opened the hospital 32 years ago. It’s a charity, run purely on donations.
Mr Ulysse explained that the increasing gang violence across the whole of Port-au-Prince, and the chaos it is causing, means people are herded into displacement camps, which in turn means that cholera outbreaks are getting worse.
Jose Ulysse, Fontaine Hospital founder
“Cholera is always present, but there’s a time when it’s more,” he told me.
“Lately because of all the displacement camps there is a great deal of promiscuity and rape, and we have an increase in cases.”
As we spoke, I asked him about the two young boys, and a small group of women on drips in the ward.
“Now they are here, they will be okay, but if they weren’t here and this hospital wasn’t here, they would be dead by now,” he replied when I asked him about their condition.
Jose Ulysse and Sky’s Stuart Ramsay
We left the cholera ward, cleaning our hands and shoes with disinfectant, before moving on to the next part of the hospital under pressure – the malnutrition ward.
“Malnutrition and cholera go hand-in-hand,” Mr Ulysse explained as we walked.
In the clinic, we meet parents and their little ones – all the infants are malnourished.
The mothers – and important to note – one father, are given food to feed their babies.
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Children going to school in Haiti dodge gunfire
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Soldiers face ‘raining bullets’ from Haiti’s gangs
Distended tummies are ‘giveaway signs’ of malnutrition
Those who are in the worst condition are also fed by a drip. One of the giveaway signs of malnutrition is a distended tummy, and most of these babies have that.
Poverty and insecurity combine to cause this, Mr Ulysse tells me. And like cholera, malnutrition is getting worse.
He explained that when the violence increases, parents can’t go to work because it is too dangerous, so they end up not being able to make a living, which means that they can’t feed their children properly.
The medics and hospital workers risk their lives every day, crossing gang lines and territories to get to the hospital and care for their patients.
Mothers and their children at the Fontaine Hospital in gang-controlled Cite Soleil
NICU unit at Fontaine Hospital
The reason why this hospital is so popular is because staff show up, even when the fighting is at its worst.
Despite their meagre resources, the Fontaine Hospital’s intensive care unit for premature babies is busy – it is widely regarded as one of the best facilities of its kind in the country.
A team of nurses, masked and in scrubs, tenderly care for these tiny children, some of whom are only hours old.
They are some of the most incredibly vulnerable.
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I asked Mr Ulysse what would happen if his hospital wasn’t there.
“Just imagine, there isn’t a place where they can go, everyone comes here, normally the poorest people in the country”, he told me.
But he stressed that the only way the hospital can keep going is through donations, and the cuts to the US government’s USAID programme has had a direct impact on the hospital’s donors.
The hospital is run by donations, which have been affected by cuts from the US government’s USAID programme
Attacks on hospitals and staff working in the toughest areas across Port-au-Prince have become common.
We filmed outside one of the two Médecins Sans Frontières facilities in the centre of the capital, where work has been suspended because their staff were threatened or attacked.
Medical personnel from the health ministry in Port-au-Prince tell us over 70 per cent of all medical facilities in Port-au-Prince have been shut. Only one major public hospital, the Le Paix Hospital, is open.
The Le Paix Hospital’s executive director, Dr Paul Junior Fontilus, says he is perplexed by the gang’s targeting of medical facilities.
“It makes no sense, it’s crazy, we don’t know what it is they want,” he said as we walked through the hospital.
The hospital is orderly and functioning well, considering the pressure it is under. They are dealing with more and more cases of cholera, an increase in gunshot wounds and sexual violence.
“We are overrun with demand, and this surpasses our capacity to respond,” he explained to me.
“But we are obliged to meet the challenge and offer services to the population.”
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Haiti: An eyewitness account
Gang violence is crushing the life out of Port-au-Prince, affecting all of society. And, as is often the case, the most vulnerable in society suffer the most.
Stuart Ramsay reports from Haiti with camera operator Toby Nash, senior foreign producer Dominique Van Heerden, and producers Brunelie Joseph and David Montgomery.
World
Donald Trump ambushes South African president at White House meeting by playing video alleging ‘genocide’
Donald Trump has ambushed South Africa’s president during a White House meeting by playing a video purportedly showing evidence of a “genocide” of white farmers in the African country.
The US president, who was hosting leader Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office, said the footage showed the graves of more than a thousand white farmers and “it’s a terrible sight… I’ve never seen anything like it. Those people are all killed”.
After an initial friendly chat where Mr Trump complimented South African golfers in the room, a montage of clips was played as Mr Ramaphosa sat quietly and mostly expressionless. He later said: “I’d like to know where that is because this [the alleged burial site in the video] I’ve never seen”.
Donald Trump meets Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office. Pic: AP
The lights were dimmed in the Oval Office as the videos were shown, including of South African officials allegedly calling for violence against white farmers.
The scene in the heart of the White House administration was reminiscent of Mr Trump’s ambush of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February.
But later, as he left after around three hours at the White House, Mr Ramaphosa insisted his meeting with Mr Trump went “very well”.
The White House’s official account on X posted the footage that was shown in the Oval Office, saying it was “proof of persecution in South Africa”.
South Africa has rejected the allegation that white people are disproportionately targeted by crime.
The clips included one of a communist politician playing a controversial anti-apartheid song that includes lyrics about killing a farmer.
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Watch the full video
Mr Trump accused South Africa of failing to address the killing of white farmers.
“We have many people that feel they’re being persecuted, and they’re coming to the United States. So we take from many… locations, if we feel there’s persecution or genocide going on,” the US president said, referring specifically to white farmers.
He added: “People are fleeing South Africa for their own safety. Their land is being confiscated and in many cases they’re being killed.”
Alluding to people in the videos, Mr Trump said: “These are people that are officials and they’re saying… kill the white farmer and take their land.”
The US president then displayed printed copies of news articles that he said showed white South Africans who had been killed, saying “death, death” as he flipped through them.
He added of one article: “Here’s burial sites all over the place, these are all white farmers that are being buried.”
Mr Trump and Mr Ramaphosa look towards a screen where videos were played. Pic: Reuters
South African leader rejects allegations
Mr Ramaphosa pushed back against Mr Trump’s accusations, by responding: “What you saw, the speeches that were being made, that is not government policy. We have a multi-party democracy in South Africa that allows people to express themselves, political parties to adhere to various policies.
“And in many cases, or in some cases, those policies do not go along with government policy.
“Our government policy is completely, completely against what he [a person in the video montage] was saying, even in the parliament. And they are a small minority party which is allowed to exist in terms of our constitution.”
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Mr Ramaphosa also said of the behaviour alleged by Mr Trump: “We are completely opposed to that.”
The South African leader said there was crime in his country, and the majority of victims were black. Mr Trump cut him off and said: “The farmers are not black.” The South African president responded: “These are concerns we are willing to talk to you about.”
A video was played during the White House meeting. Pic: AP
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
Mr Trump has cancelled aid, expelled South Africa’s ambassador and offered refuge to white minority Afrikaners based on racial discrimination claims which Pretoria says are baseless.
Experts in South Africa have said there is no evidence of white people being targeted, although farmers of all races are victims of violent home invasions in a country that suffers from a very high crime rate.
Vladimir Putin has visited Kursk for the first time since his troops ejected Ukrainian forces from the Russian city.
The Russian president met with volunteer organisations and visited a nuclear power plant in the region on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Mr Putin said late last month that his forces had ejected Ukrainian troops from the Kursk region, which ended the largest incursion into Russian territory since the Second World War.
Vladimir Putin during his visit in the Kursk region on Tuesday. Pic: Kremlin News/Telegram
Mr Putin visited a nuclear power plant. Pic: Kremlin.ru/Reuters
Ukraine launched its attack in August last year, using swarms of drones and heavy Western weaponry to smash through the Russian border, controlling nearly 540sq m (5,813sq ft) of Kursk at the height of the incursion.
More than 159 Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russian territory, Russia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday.
The majority were over Russia’s western regions, but at least six drones were shot down over the densely populated Moscow region, the ministry added.
The visit in the Kursk region comes as a Russian missile attack killed six soldiers and injured 10 more during training in the Sumy region of Ukraine, according to the country’s national guard.
The commander of the unit has been suspended and an internal investigation has been launched.
The Russian president met with volunteer organisations. Pic: Kremlin News/Telegram
Russia’s defence ministry claimed the attack on the training camp in northeastern Ukraine killed up to 70 Ukrainian servicemen, including 20 instructors.
The attack comes after US President Donald Trump spoke to both Mr Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, urging them to restart ceasefire talks.
Read more from Sky News:
Fresh UK and EU sanctions on Russia announced
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But German defence minister Boris Pistorius said on Wednesday that Mr Trump misjudged his influence on Mr Putin after the call between the American and Russian leaders yielded no progress in Ukraine peace talks.
Europe has since announced new sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine. Mr Pistorius said it remained to be seen whether the US would join those measures.
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