Lebanese border town abandoned after Israeli white phosphorus attack

Residents fled the town of the Lebanese-border town of Dhayrah on Tuesday, 17 October, after hours of Israeli shelling, which included the use of white phosphorus, a munition described as "unlawfully indiscriminate" by rights groups.

"No one is left in the village; everyone fled to a different place. We were stuck in our homes, covering our faces with wet blankets to breathe through the smoke from the phosphorus bombs," Ali Sweid, a town resident, told The New Arab.

A town council member told TNA that phosphorus shells hit homes and that residents took shelter in schools and hotels in neighbouring cities.

"A shell fell right next to my home, breaking my window and damaging my car. I had to flee; they really hit us hard with phosphorus yesterday," Zaher Abu Sari, the town council member, told TNA.

Residents reported at least one severe and several moderate cases of asphyxiation from smoke inhalations, which were taken to the hospital after the shelling had stopped.

Israel has shelled both Gaza and Lebanon with white phosphorus over the past week, earning condemnation from human rights groups for the use of the dangerous incendiary weapon.

"Any time that white phosphorus is used in crowded civilian areas, it poses a high risk of excruciating burns and lifelong suffering," Lama Fakih, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said on 13 October.  

HRW verified the use of white phosphorus in Lebanon on two different occasions, and several unconfirmed reports from both eyewitnesses and Lebanese media have continually reported Israeli use of the munition throughout the past week.

TNA could not independently verify the claims but did see videos of airbursts above the town similar to those confirmed by HRW. 

The head of emergency services in the southeastern border town of Kafr Kala, Hassan Cheet, told TNA that white phosphorus shells were shot on the outskirts of the town on Tuesday, with no injuries reported.

Dhayrah was shelled after a clash between Israeli forces and unknown gunmen on the Lebanese side of the border.

Hezbollah shot a rocket from the town on Wednesday, killing one Israeli soldier and wounding another, prompting retaliatory Israeli shelling.

The town's residents have said that while they sympathise with the Palestinian cause, they prefer their town not be used to launch rockets into Israel.

Dhayrah may have been the Lebanese town hardest hit by Israeli shelling.

Towns along the Lebanese-Israeli border have fled en-masse to Beirut, fearful of being caught in the crossfire of a slowly escalating war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Clashes between the two parties have remained limited thus far, but Iran, Hezbollah's backer, has said that it will use "all resistance forces" in the region against Israel if it launched a ground offensive in Gaza.