AP: Passing along Palestinian white phosphorus lies

The AP is helping the world to charge Israel with war crimes. They’re accusing Israel of dropping white phosphorus shells on Gaza without finding any physical evidence whatsoever—but they have plenty of Palestinian experts telling them it happened. Hey, even the Palestinian children are able to tell you when a shell is made of white phosphorus and when it’s just another shell. And the headline? Sheer propaganda.

Gaza family returns home after phosphorus blast
All were victims of a single white phosphorus shell dropped on their home, survivors and doctors said.

“It’s been two weeks and it’s still burning,” said Mahmoud Abu Halima, 20, picking up a bit of phosphorus shrapnel in the hallway. He rubbed the brownish fragment against the floor and it gave off an eery green glow followed by acrid smoke that sent everyone coughing.

White phosphorus is an incendiary agent used to illuminate targets at night or create a smoke screen for day attacks. When a person comes into contact with it, it can cause horrific injuries. It ignites upon striking the skin and burns straight through or until it is cut off from oxygen.

Interesting. The Palestinian picked up a fragment that supposedly ignites upon striking the skin, and yet it did not ignite when he picked it up. It did, however, ignite against the floor as he rubbed it. Why it didn’t burst into flame on contact with his hands, the writer didn’t say. But later in the article, white phosphorus was doing exactly what it’s supposed to do:

In the town of Beit Lahiya, boys exposed a lump of white phosphorus previously covered by sand. It burst into flames as they kicked it playfully down the road.

Really, make up your mind, AP. Is it white phosphorous, or isn’t it?

Yes:

The United Nations says white phosphorus was fired at two U.N. schools packed with refugees during the fighting.

No:

Israel says it only used the explosive as flares or smoke screens to protect tanks during heavy combat, and does its best to avoid civilian injuries. The international Red Cross said last week that it had no evidence to suggest the incendiary agent was being used improperly or illegally.

Yes:

But a human rights group condemned its use in places filled with civilians such as Gaza.

There is absolutely no scientific evidence that these are white phosphorous burns. There is only anecdotal evidence from people who have no proof whatsoever, and that includes the Palestinian doctors. Look at this doctor’s quote, which is placed in the article in such a way as to make you think it is about the burn victim’s wounds, but reads like a reporter asking the doctor to describe white phosphorous burns.

His mother, Salima, 44, lay badly wounded in a ward of Shifa Hospital in central Gaza City. “I was burned by the smoke, it came like a fountain,” she said, describing how the chemical burst in all directions after hitting her living room.

Doctors at Shifa Hospital said Salima’s wounds at first appeared superficial when she was brought in.

“But it eats at the flesh, it digs deeper and gets to the bone,” said doctor Nafiz Abu Shahbah. “The whole body becomes toxic,” said the doctor, who heads the hospital’s burn unit.

That sounds like white phosphorus all right. And the AP adds the doctor’s qualifications to make you think that he really, really knows what he’s talking about. Except he still hasn’t conducted any tests to find out whether or not the burns were caused by white phosphorus.

Abu Shahbah, a doctor trained in Egypt, Scotland and Virginia who’s headed the Shifa ward for the past 15 years, said he believes the wounds of the Abu Halimas and hundreds of similar cases treated here were inflicted by white phosphorus shells.

Belief is not proof. There are tests that can be done that will prove whether or not the woman is suffering from white phosphorus burns. Those same tests could be made on the burning chunks that give off that “eerie glow.” Or maybe they could just look things up on Wikipedia.

Burning WP produces a hot, dense white smoke. Most forms of smoke are not hazardous in the kinds of concentrations produced by a battlefield smoke shell. Exposure to heavy smoke concentrations of any kind for an extended period (particularly if near the source of emission) does have the potential to cause illness or even death.

WP smoke irritates the eyes and nose in moderate concentrations. With intense exposures, a very explosive cough may occur. However, no recorded casualties from the effects of WP smoke alone have occurred in combat operations and to date there are no confirmed deaths resulting from exposure to phosphorus smoke.

Interesting. Once again, it takes almost no effort to actually research a subject and disprove the claims of the Palestinians that are passed along uncritically passes on the accusations of Palestinians as if they were scientific fact.

As for that “eerie green glow”? I’m calling bullshit on it.

Phosphorus exists in several allotropic forms including white (or yellow), red, and black (or violet). White phosphorus has two modifications. Ordinary phosphorus is a waxy white solid. When pure, it is colourless and transparent. It is insoluble in water, but soluble in carbon disulphide. It catches fire spontaneously in air, burning to P4O10, often misnamed as phosphorus pentoxide. When exposed to sunlight, or when heated in its own vapour to 250°C, it is converted to the red variety. This form does not ignite spontaneously and it is a little less dangerous than white phosphorus.

There is, however, one piece of solid evidence that a white phosphorus rocket was fired during the Gaza war. By Hamas, at Israel.

Palestinian militants fired a phosphorus rocket at Israel for the first time yesterday, one of 17 fired into Israel as fighting entered its 19th day. The phosphorus rocket exploded in an open field in the western Negev. No injuries or damage were reported.

The world media assault on Israel continues. Watch this story take wings and fly, in spite of its blatant lack of facts.