BBC on Israel’s reprimands re white phosphorus attack:
Israel has revealed it has reprimanded two top army officers for authorising an artillery attack which hit a UN compound in Gaza last year.
In the attack on 15 January 2009 the compound was set ablaze by white phosphorus shells.
If you read the Goldstone report (Chapter XII, paragraphs 887 on..) Israel used white phosphorus on countless occasions during the ground phase of the operation: against Beit Lahiya, a crowded urban area in the north, with the result that several members of a huddled family, the Abu Halimas, were burned alive; in Khuza’a, a more rural area at the east of the Gaza Strip, in amongst many homes; and in the attack on Al-Quds Hospital. So why only cop to it with respect to the U.N. facilities? In the Abu Halima case, Goldstone said an exploding shell was used. Completely indiscriminate.
Update: B’Tselem describes the investigation as a "coverup" and points out that the reprimands were not for the white phosphorus itself but for the artillery barrage:
B’Tselem: Cover-up of phosphorus shelling in Gaza proves army cannot investigate itself; Open criminal investigation into phosphorus shelling of UNWRA facility…
B’Tselem has sent an urgent letter to the judge advocate general, Maj. Gen. Avichai Mandelblit, demanding that he immediately order a Military Police investigation into the circumstances of the firing of phosphorus shells at the UNWRA compound in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead. This morning, the media reported that the commander of the Gaza division, Brig. Gen. Eyal Eizenberg, and the commander of the Givati brigade, Col. Ilan Malka, were disciplined for authorized the shelling. The report that Israel submitted to the UN last weekend omitted details of the incident, stating only that the two officers had been brought before disciplinary hearings for exceeding their authority in a way that endangered lives, by permitting shelling of populated areas, contrary to the army’s regulations.
