Learn about the history of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, equality and justice by exploring major events in the history of their oppression on this day of the year.
15 January
On 15 January 2009, Israel followed repeated warnings from UN staff with artillery fire with white phosphorus shells into a UN compound in Gaza. According to Human Rights Watch, Israel's military fired white phosphorus over crowded built-up areas of Gaza repeatedly and indiscriminately, killing and injuring civilians and committing war crimes. Initially dismissing the claims as “baseless”, the Israelis then accepted the report and lightly censured two officers for “exceeding their authority”.
ادانة اسرائيل لاستخدامها القنابل الفسفورية عشوائيا بين السكان في غزة
15 يناير
في هذا اليوم من العام 2009م، قامت إسرائيل بعد الإنذارات المتكررة من موظفي الأمم المتحدة بقصف مجمع تابع للمنظمة الدولية في غزة بنيران المدفعية مع قذائف الفسفور الأبيض. وحسب منظمة هيومان رايتس ووتش، قذفت القوات العسكرية الإسرائيلية بالفسفور الأبيض المناطق المزدحمة والمأهولة في عزة بشكل متكرر ودون تمييز، مما أسفر عن قتل وجرح مدنيين وارتكاب جرائم حرب. في البداية رفض الإسرائيليون الادعاءات باعتبارها "لا أساس لها" ، ثم قبلوا التقرير ووجهوا اللوم إلى ضابطين بتهمة "تجاوز سلطاتهما.
Israel accused of indiscriminate phosphorus use in Gaza
“The Israeli military fired white phosphorus repeatedly over densely populated areas, even when its troops weren't in the area. Civilians needlessly suffered and died." After Human Rights Watch called on the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, to launch an international commission of inquiry, the Israeli military at first denied using the weapon, then insisted that “the IDF's use of smoke shells was in accordance with international law. These shells were used…in accord with international humanitarian law. The claim that smoke shells were used indiscriminately, or to threaten the civilian population, is baseless."
The Guardian found one such shell still smoking several days after it was fired, outside the home of the Abu Halima family in Atatra. One white phosphorous shell hit the house directly, killing a father and four of his children. His wife was severely burnt.
Human Rights Watch found 24 spent white phosphorus shells in Gaza, all from the same batch made in a US ammunition factory in 1989 by Thiokol Aerospace. Other shells were photographed during the war with markings showing they were made in the Pine Bluff Arsenal, also in America, in 1991.
HRW said it found no evidence that Hamas fighters used Palestinian civilians as human shields - a key Israeli claim - in the area at the time of the attacks it researched. Witnesses described how a white phosphorus shell hit a car in Tel al-Hawa, in south-eastern Gaza City, killing a bank manager, his wife and two of their children on 15 January.
On the same day, at about 7.30am, Israeli artillery shells began falling near the main compound of the UN Relief and Works Agency in Gaza City, where 700 civilians were sheltering. UN staff made repeated telephone calls to the Israeli military asking them to stop but, at about 10am, six shells hit the compound, three of which contained white phosphorus. The warehouse was hit, causing at least $10m of damage, and it continued to burn for 12 days.