Human Rights Watch has accused the Israeli military of unlawfully using artillery-fired white phosphorus munitions over residential areas in southern Lebanon, presenting verified evidence of the incendiary weapon's deployment over homes on March 3, 2026.
The international rights organization verified and geolocated eight images showing airburst white phosphorus munitions being deployed over a residential section of the town of Yohmor, along with civil defense workers responding to fires in at least two homes and one vehicle in the affected area.
"The Israeli military's unlawful use of white phosphorus over residential areas is extremely alarming and will have dire consequences for civilians," said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch. "The incendiary effects of white phosphorous can cause death or cruel injuries that result in lifelong suffering."
White phosphorus is a chemical substance dispersed in artillery shells, bombs, and rockets that ignites when exposed to oxygen. It can set homes, agricultural areas, and other civilian objects on fire, and can cause horrific burns, respiratory damage, and death on contact with human skin.
Human Rights Watch identified the distinctive smoke cloud pattern in verified imagery as entirely consistent with the M825-series 155mm artillery projectile containing white phosphorus. The organization geolocated the airburst deployment over a residential neighborhood in Yohmor on the morning of March 3.
Earlier that day, at 5:27 a.m., Avichay Adraee, Israel's Arabic military spokesperson, issued an evacuation order stating that residents of Yohmor and 50 other villages and towns "should immediately evacuate and move away from the villages to a distance of at least 1,000 meters outside the village to open land." The order was repeated at 12:12 p.m. the same day.
Human Rights Watch also verified photographs posted by the Civil Defense Team of the Islamic Health Committee in , which is affiliated with Hezbollah, showing workers extinguishing fires on residential rooftops and in a vehicle, with smoke emerging from home balconies. The geolocated fire sites were within a radius of less than 160 meters, indicating the munitions spread burning material over a concentrated residential area.
