The International Federation for Rights and Development (IFRD) is gravely alarmed by Human Rights Watch’s findings published on 9 March 2026 documenting the reported unlawful use of artillery-fired white phosphorus munitions over residential areas in Yohmor, southern Lebanon, on 3 March 2026. According to HRW, the organization verified and geolocated eight images showing white phosphorus airbursts over a residential part of the town, alongside fires affecting at least two homes and one vehicle.
If confirmed, these acts represent a deeply serious violation of international humanitarian law. As HRW notes, the use of airburst white phosphorus in populated areas is unlawfully indiscriminate, because it cannot adequately distinguish between military objectives and civilians, and fails to meet the obligation to take all feasible precautions to spare civilian life and civilian objects. White phosphorus is an incendiary substance capable of igniting homes, farmland, and other civilian infrastructure, while inflicting severe burns, respiratory injury, and long-term suffering.
IFRD condemns any use of incendiary munitions in or near civilian concentrations and calls for an immediate, independent, and credible investigation into the incident in Yohmor and any related attacks. Accountability cannot remain selective. States and military commanders implicated in grave breaches of the laws of war must be subject to effective scrutiny, and victims must have access to justice and reparations.
We further note HRW’s warning that the events in Yohmor come amid a broader escalation in Lebanon, with mounting civilian casualties, mass displacement, and sweeping displacement orders that raise further legal concerns. In this context, the use of incendiary weapons in populated areas is especially reckless and intolerable.
IFRD urges the international community, including the United Nations, the European Union, and all states with influence over the parties to the conflict, to press for:
an immediate end to the use of white phosphorus and other indiscriminate means of warfare in civilian areas;
full protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure in Lebanon;
prompt and impartial investigations into alleged war crimes;
and concrete accountability measures against those responsible for serious violations of international law.
The normalization of incendiary weapons over towns and neighborhoods must not be allowed to stand. Civilians in Lebanon are entitled to protection, not exposure to weapons whose effects are foreseeable, agonizing, and indiscriminate.
