Israeli strike on Gaza last year tantamount to chemical attack

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: The Guardian
31 May 2022 13:40
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"Israel" launched a strike at an agrochemical warehouse last year that left residents today with health problems.

According to a report analyzing the impact that one Israeli strike had on an agrochemical warehouse in Gaza last year, the attack amounted to the "indirect deploying of chemical weapons."

During the battle of Seif Al-Quds last year, Israeli occupation forces fired incendiary artillery shells targeting the large Khudair Pharmaceutical and Agricultural Tools warehouse in the north of the strip on May 15, 2021. The strike set fire to hundreds of tons of pesticides, fertilizers, plastics and nylons, creating a toxic plume that spanned an area of 5.7 square kilometers, leaving locals to struggle with health issues and environmental damage.

Read More: Seif Al-Quds taught "Israel" a hard lesson on deterrence equation

An extensive investigation, alongside an analysis of mobile phone, CCTV and drone footage, dozens of interviews with residents, and analysis from munitions experts, determined the circumstances of the attack using 3D modeling.

Palestinian NGO Al-Haq's newly established forensic architecture investigation unit published the results of this study, and legal experts concluded from Al-Haq's findings that even though conventional weapons were used in the bombing, “the shelling of the warehouse, with knowledge of the presence of toxic chemicals stored therein, is tantamount to chemical weapons through indirect means. Such acts are clearly prohibited … and prosecutable under the Rome Statute of the international criminal court”.

The toxic plume engulfed 3,000 homes in its shadow (Al-Haq)

Chris Cobb-Smith, a munitions expert, told The Guardian that there is no military justification for the IOF to use incendiary shells there because this is inherently inaccurate and "unsuitable for use in an urban environment."

"My counsin got cancer recently"

Israa Khudair, 20, lives with her husband and two children around 40 meters away from the warehouse. She suffered a miscarriage in the fifth month of her pregnancy, only eight weeks after the attack.

“I have had skin rashes since and so have most people here. We washed the house five times, and the furniture, but the smell stayed. It was like an oil on the walls … eventually in the winter the rain washed a lot of it away from the rubble of the warehouse," Israa's husband, Ihab said.

“We are worried for our health now. One of my cousins, who is only 19, and my aunt also, got cancer recently and we think it is related to what happened here.”

Al-Haq was one of the six NGOs working in the Palestinian occupied territories that was designated a "terror organization" by Israeli authorities last year. Their decision was condemned by the UN, Western governments, and international organizations like Amnesty International.