How a Lebanese researcher is using visual data to map Israeli military’s use of white phosphorus

Shells that appears to be white phosphorus from Israeli artillery explode over Dahaira, a Lebanese border village with Israel, south Lebanon, on Oct. 16, 2023. (AP)
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Updated 11 November 2024
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How a Lebanese researcher is using visual data to map Israeli military’s use of white phosphorus

  • White phosphorus is used to create smokescreens on battlefields, but its misuse has many public health implications
  • Ahmad Baydoun maps Israel’s use of the chemical compound in southern Lebanon to document its environmental impact

DUBAI: When Ahmad Baydoun left Lebanon in 2022 to pursue a PhD on weaponized environments in Amsterdam, he did not anticipate his research would soon become essential in documenting devastation in his homeland.

His work has gained significance in the wake of escalating violence in Lebanon’s south, where reports allege Israeli forces have used white phosphorus in populated areas with severe consequences for the environment and public health.

White phosphorus is an incendiary substance known for emitting bright light, intense burning and thick smoke.




A view of M825 and M825A1 artillery shells labeled D528, the US Department of Defense Identification Code for "white phosphorus-based munitions" in Sderot, Israel on October 09, 2023. (Photo by Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Although it is permissible under international law to use phosphorus to obscure military movements, the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons prohibits deploying it near civilians.

Using geolocated visual data to trace the environmental impact of military tactics, Baydoun has been documenting Israel’s use of white phosphorus in southern Lebanon, both to bear witness and to demand accountability.

“Geolocation humanizes those affected and gives precision,” Baydoun told Arab News. “It’s hard to look away when you see the impact on people’s homes and landscapes.”

FASTFACTS

• White phosphorus is a chemical substance that ignites upon exposure to oxygen, creating intense, long-lasting flames and thick smoke.

• It is used militarily to obscure movement, mark targets and create smokescreens on battlefields.

• Contact with white phosphorus causes severe burns, respiratory damage and eye irritation, and it can be fatal if inhaled or absorbed.

• Residual chemicals seep into soil and water, contaminating crops and harming biodiversity, with lasting ecological damage.

• International law restricts white phosphorus use in civilian areas under the Chemical Weapons Convention and Geneva Protocol.

Baydoun’s journey from academia to advocacy was unexpected. His fascination with architectural policies and conflict initially revolved around how built environments could be manipulated for control and exclusion during wartime.

However, when cross-border exchanges between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia began on Oct. 8, 2023, the situation demanded a response.




Wounded Lebanese child Haidar Hijazi, 5, rests at hospital in Sidon on September 27, 2024, after he was injured following an Israeli airstrike that targeted his home village of al-Sharkiyah in southern Lebanon. (AFP)

Hezbollah began firing rockets into populated areas of northern Israel in solidarity with Hamas, prompting Israel to retaliate.

In northern Israel, the conflict has forced some 96,000 people to leave their homes. To date, 68 Israeli security personnel and 43 civilians have been killed, according to official tallies.

Israel’s campaign of airstrikes and “limited” ground operations have displaced more than a million Lebanese from their homes, while the death toll has surpassed 3,000, according to health officials.




Members of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) patrol the southern Lebanese Marjayoun district, near the border with Israel, on October 16, 2024. (AFP)

Baydoun shifted from theoretical work to real-time monitoring, using satellite imagery, social media, and data verification to map alleged phosphorus attacks on Lebanese villages.

The Lebanese National Council for Scientific Research estimates that 117 phosphoric bombs have been fired into southern Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold, since October 2023. Many of these have reportedly sparked fires, engulfing fields, forests and villages.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Environment has previously said some 462 hectares of forests and farmland were destroyed between October and November 2023. The Ministry of Health has also called on the international community to condemn the use of white phosphorus and to intervene.




The devastation and destruction of many villages along the Blue Line, and even beyond, is shocking, says Andrea Tenenti, UNIFIL spokesperson

Despite Israel’s insistence that its use of phosphorus serves only as a smokescreen to shield its soldiers’ movements, local Lebanese officials say the weapons are part of a larger strategy to render the area uninhabitable, pushing residents to evacuate en masse.

The use of white phosphorus in populated areas is not just a violation of international law, but a public health threat. When it comes into contact with the skin, it causes extreme, often fatal, burns. It also produces thick fumes that irritate the eyes and respiratory system.

Wounds caused by phosphorus burns can continue to inflict damage days after exposure, requiring extensive medical care — often unavailable in the midst of conflict.




Ahmad Baydoun. (Supplied)

Mental health issues also proliferate among survivors, with conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and insomnia becoming prevalent. The persistent psychological impact, especially for children, is immense and underreported.

The environmental damage is equally far-reaching. When the chemical compound seeps into the soil, it contaminates vegetation and crops, potentially rendering large areas of farmland unusable.

Additionally, chemicals can leach into rivers and water systems, destroying biodiversity and threatening communities reliant on these resources.




People watch as a smoke cloud erupts after a rocket fired by an Israeli war plane hit a building in Beirut's southern suburb of Shayah on October 22, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)

“We’re not just talking about Lebanon,” said Baydoun. “If these areas aren’t detoxified, we’ll see consequences across the region. Lebanese agricultural exports could carry these toxins, affecting ecosystems and markets beyond our borders.”

Agriculture makes up a significant part of Lebanon’s economy. The contamination of farmland in Lebanon’s south — an area once responsible for much of the country’s crop production — could deal a severe blow to the local economy and food security.

Farmers in southern Lebanon, many already impoverished, face the loss of homes and livelihoods. The destruction of olive groves, citrus orchards and wheat fields reduces local sustenance and regional exports, deepening Lebanon’s economic crisis.




Fire sweep over the Marjayoun plain in southern Lebanon near the border with Israel after being hit by Israeli shelling on August 16, 2024, amid the ongoing cross-border clashes between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters. (AFP)

While Baydoun works from Amsterdam, his research methods allow him to follow developments closely.

He employs techniques such as geolocation, where he uses digital imagery and coordinates to pinpoint attacks, and chronolocation, a process of using environmental cues like shadow lengths to estimate times.

These tools help him cross-verify incidents with reliable satellite data, providing accurate, real-time assessments.




A farmer collects his dead livestock which was killed by Israeli bombardment that hit a farm along the hills of the village of Jezzine in southern Lebanon early on July 8, 2024 amid ongoing cross-border tensions as fighting continues between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. (AFP)

“Verifying attacks can be complex given how rife misinformation and AI manipulation have become,” said Baydoun. “But every precise verification adds to a larger story — one that’s too compelling to ignore.”

He is not alone in his commitment to these methods. Collaborating with digital investigative platforms, Baydoun joins a global community of researchers dedicated to documenting environmental violence.

Together, they expose patterns of harm that may otherwise remain concealed.




Medical staff care for victims after the Israeli military struck a Beirut's southern suburb, on July 30, 2024, at Bahman hospital. (AFP)

Baydoun also works closely with Lebanese journalist-activists, who help him obtain localized information from remote areas that journalists can no longer access due to safety concerns.

“No one is there to report on what is happening in the south anymore,” said Baydoun. “There is only the UN Interim Force in Lebanon and satellite imagery as sources of information.

“I have previously worked on a map showing how close Israel was bombing near the UN peacekeepers in the area. The peacekeeping forces suffered from gastrointestinal complications, and skin irritations; both are unique effects of exposure to white phosphorus.”

UNIFIL is a UN peacekeeping mission established in 1978 to administer the Blue Line demarking the border between Israel and Lebanon.

Despite spokesperson Andrea Tenenti previously saying that an investigation had found “possible traces of the use of white phosphorus” in close proximity to a UNIFIL base, a confidential report recently published by the Financial Times has been more damning.

The report mentions various incidents where Israeli forces have mounted attacks on or near UNIFIL bases in Lebanon. In one incident, the Israel Defense Forces reportedly used white phosphorus at close range, injuring 15 UN peacekeepers in the process.

The report details the attack of Oct. 13, in which two Israeli tanks breached the main gate of a UNIFIL base and remained inside for 45 minutes. Shortly after, the IDF fired shells approximately 100 meters north of the base, emitting “suspected white phosphorus smoke,” which injured UNIFIL personnel.

“Despite putting on protective masks, 15 peacekeepers suffered effects, including skin irritation and gastrointestinal reactions after the smoke entered the camp,” the report said.

Israel denied directly striking the compound and said the IDF was using the smokescreen for cover as it attempted to evacuate soldiers.

Israel had previously demanded the withdrawal of the UNIFIL peacekeepers from 31 of their bases along the Israeli-Lebanese border, as the areas had become “active combat zones.”

The international community has faced criticism for its muted response to Israel’s use of white phosphorus in Lebanon.

Human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have condemned the use of white phosphorus in densely populated regions in previous conflicts, but statements from world leaders have yet to directly address the allegations in Lebanon.

For Baydoun, his work on the subject serves as both documentation and advocacy. His research could prove critical, providing an account of Lebanon’s suffering that would otherwise go unseen. But the toll is personal, too.

“I’ve had my share of sleepless nights,” he said. “Emotions run high when attacks happen close to loved ones. You’re working for your country, and it’s hard to stop.”

 


Activist aid ship nears Gaza after reaching Egypt coast: organizers

Updated 07 June 2025
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Activist aid ship nears Gaza after reaching Egypt coast: organizers

  • The Madleen, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, left Sicily last week with a cargo of relief supplies ‘to break Israel’s blockade on Gaza’

CAIRO: An aid ship with 12 activists on board, including Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, has reached the Egyptian coast and is nearing the besieged Palestinian territory, organizers said on Saturday.
The Madleen, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, left Sicily last week with a cargo of relief supplies “to break Israel’s blockade on Gaza.”
“We are now sailing off the Egyptian coast,” German human rights activist Yasemin Acar told AFP. “We are all good,” she added.
In a statement from London on Saturday, the International Committee for Breaking the Siege of Gaza — a member organization of the flotilla coalition — said the ship had entered Egyptian waters.
The group said it remains in contact with international legal and human rights bodies to ensure the safety of those on board, warning that any interception would constitute “a blatant violation of international humanitarian law.”
European parliament member Rima Hassan, who is on board the vessel, urged governments to “guarantee safe passage for the Freedom Flotilla.”
The Palestinian territory was under Israeli naval blockade even before the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas that sparked the Gaza war and Israel has enforced its blockade with military action in the past.
A 2010 commando raid on the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, which was part of a similar aid flotilla trying to breach the blockade, left 10 civilians dead.
In May, another Freedom Flotilla ship, the Conscience, reported coming under drone attack while en route for Gaza, prompting Cyprus and Malta to send rescue vessels in response to its distress call. There were no reports of any casualties.
Earlier in its voyage, the Madleen changed course near the Greek island of Crete after receiving a distress signal from a sinking migrant boat.
Activists rescued four Sudanese migrants who had jumped into the sea to avoid being returned to Libya. The four were later transferred to an EU Frontex vessel.
Launched in 2010, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition is a coalition of groups opposed to the blockade on humanitarian aid for Gaza that Israel imposed on March 2 and has only partially eased since.
Israel has faced mounting international condemnation over the resulting humanitarian crisis in the territory, where the United Nations has warned the entire population of more than two million is at risk of famine.


Israel says it has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage kidnapped into Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023

Updated 07 June 2025
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Israel says it has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage kidnapped into Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023

TEL AVIV: Israel says it has retrieved the body of a Thai hostage kidnapped into Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023.
The Prime Minister’s office said Saturday that the body of Thai citizen Nattapong Pinta was returned to Israel in a special military operation.
Pinta was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz and killed in captivity near the start of the war, said the government. Thais were the largest group of foreigners held captive by Hamas militants.
This comes two days after the bodies of two Israeli-American hostages were retrieved.
Fifty-five hostages remain in Gaza, of whom Israel says more than half are dead.
The defense minister said Saturday that Pinta’s body was retrieved from the Rafah area. He had come to Israel from Thailand to work in agriculture.
On Thursday, Israel retrieved the bodies of Judih Weinstein and Gad Haggai, both of whom had Israeli and US citizenship.
This comes as Israel continues its operation in Gaza. At least 22 people were killed by Israeli strikes overnight Friday into Saturday.


Lebanon aims to lure back wealthy Gulf tourists to jumpstart its war-torn economy

Updated 07 June 2025
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Lebanon aims to lure back wealthy Gulf tourists to jumpstart its war-torn economy

  • Lebanon’s new political leaders sense an opportunity to revitalize the economy once again with help from wealthy neighbors

BEIRUT: Fireworks lit up the night sky over Beirut’s famous St. Georges Hotel as hit songs from the 1960s and 70s filled the air in a courtyard overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.
The retro-themed event was hosted last month by Lebanon’s Tourism Ministry to promote the upcoming summer season and perhaps recapture some of the good vibes from an era viewed as a golden one for the country. In the years before a civil war began in 1975, Lebanon was the go-to destination for wealthy tourists from neighboring Gulf countries seeking beaches in summer, snow-capped mountains in winter and urban nightlife year-round.
In the decade after the war, tourists from Gulf countries – and crucially, Saudi Arabia – came back, and so did Lebanon’s economy. But by the early 2000s, as the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah gained power, Lebanon’s relations with Gulf countries began to sour. Tourism gradually dried up, starving its economy of billions of dollars in annual spending.
Now, after last year’s bruising war with Israel, Hezbollah is much weaker and Lebanon’s new political leaders sense an opportunity to revitalize the economy once again with help from wealthy neighbors. They aim to disarm Hezbollah and rekindle ties with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, which in recent years have prohibited their citizens from visiting Lebanon or importing its products.
“Tourism is a big catalyst, and so it’s very important that the bans get lifted,” said Laura Khazen Lahoud, the country’s tourism minister.
On the highway leading to the Beirut airport, once-ubiquitous banners touting Hezbollah’s leadership have been replaced with commercial billboards and posters that read “a new era for Lebanon.” In the center of Beirut, and especially in neighborhoods that hope to attract tourists, political posters are coming down, and police and army patrols are on the rise.
There are signs of thawing relations with some Gulf neighbors. The United Arab Emirates and Kuwait have lifted yearslong travel bans.
All eyes are now on Saudi Arabia, a regional political and economic powerhouse, to see if it will follow suit, according to Lahoud and other Lebanese officials. A key sticking point is security, these officials say. Although a ceasefire with Israel has been in place since November, near-daily airstrikes have continued in southern and eastern Lebanon, where Hezbollah over the years had built its political base and powerful military arsenal.
Tourism as a diplomatic and economic bridge
As vital as tourism is — it accounted for almost 20 percent of Lebanon’s economy before it tanked in 2019 — the country’s leaders say it is just one piece of a larger puzzle they are trying to put back together.
Lebanon’s agricultural and industrial sectors are in shambles, suffering a major blow in 2021, when Saudi Arabia banned their exports after accusing Hezbollah of smuggling drugs into Riyadh. Years of economic dysfunction have left the country’s once-thriving middle class in a state of desperation.
The World Bank says poverty nearly tripled in Lebanon over the past decade, affecting close to half its population of nearly 6 million. To make matters worse, inflation is soaring, with the Lebanese pound losing 90 percent of its value, and many families lost their savings when banks collapsed.
Tourism is seen by Lebanon’s leaders as the best way to kickstart the reconciliation needed with Gulf countries — and only then can they move on to exports and other economic growth opportunities.
“It’s the thing that makes most sense, because that’s all Lebanon can sell now,” said Sami Zoughaib, research manager at The Policy Initiative, a Beirut-based think tank.
With summer still weeks away, flights to Lebanon are already packed with expats and locals from countries that overturned their travel bans, and hotels say bookings have been brisk.
At the event hosted last month by the tourism ministry, the owner of the St. Georges Hotel, Fady El-Khoury, beamed. The hotel, owned by his father in its heyday, has acutely felt Lebanon’s ups and downs over the decades, closing and reopening multiple times because of wars. “I have a feeling that the country is coming back after 50 years,” he said.
On a recent weekend, as people crammed the beaches of the northern city of Batroun, and jet skis whizzed along the Mediterranean, local business people sounded optimistic that the country was on the right path.
“We are happy, and everyone here is happy,” said Jad Nasr, co-owner of a private beach club. “After years of being boycotted by the Arabs and our brothers in the Gulf, we expect this year for us to always be full.”
Still, tourism is not a panacea for Lebanon’s economy, which for decades has suffered from rampant corruption and waste.
Lebanon has been in talks with the International Monetary Fund for years over a recovery plan that would include billions in loans and require the country to combat corruption, restructure its banks, and bring improvements to a range of public services, including electricity and water.
Without those and other reforms, Lebanon’s wealthy neighbors will lack confidence to invest there, experts said. A tourism boom alone would serve as a “morphine shot that would only temporarily ease the pain” rather than stop the deepening poverty in Lebanon, Zoughaib said.
The tourism minister, Lahoud, agreed, saying a long-term process has only just begun.
“But we’re talking about subjects we never talked about before,” she said. “And I think the whole country has realized that war doesn’t serve anyone, and that we really need our economy to be back and flourish again.”


US mulls giving millions to controversial Gaza aid foundation, sources say

Updated 07 June 2025
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US mulls giving millions to controversial Gaza aid foundation, sources say

  • The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said

WASHINGTON: The State Department is weighing giving $500 million to the new foundation providing aid to war-shattered Gaza, according to two knowledgeable sources and two former US officials, a move that would involve the US more deeply in a controversial aid effort that has been beset by violence and chaos.
The sources and former US officials, all of whom requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that money for Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) would come from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which is being folded into the US State Department.
The plan has met resistance from some US officials concerned with the deadly shootings of Palestinians near aid distribution sites and the competence of the GHF, the two sources said.
The GHF, which has been fiercely criticized by humanitarian organizations, including the United Nations, for an alleged lack of neutrality, began distributing aid last week amid warnings that most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population is at risk of famine after an 11-week Israeli aid blockade, which was lifted on May 19 when limited deliveries were allowed to resume.
The foundation has seen senior personnel quit and had to pause handouts twice this week after crowds overwhelmed its distribution hubs.
The State Department and GHF did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Reuters has been unable to establish who is currently funding the GHF operations, which began in Gaza last week. The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies to transport aid into Gaza for distribution at so-called secure distribution sites.
On Thursday, Reuters reported that a Chicago-based private equity firm, McNally Capital, has an “economic interest” in the for-profit US contractor overseeing the logistics and security of GHF’s aid distribution hubs in the enclave.
While US President Donald Trump’s administration and Israel say they don’t finance the GHF operation, both have been pressing the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it.
The US and Israel argue that aid distributed by a long-established UN aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
USAID has been all but dismantled. Some 80 percent of its programs have been canceled and its staff face termination as part of President Donald Trump’s drive to align US foreign policy with his “America First” agenda.
One source with knowledge of the matter and one former senior official said the proposal to give the $500 million to GHF has been championed by acting deputy USAID Administrator Ken Jackson, who has helped oversee the agency’s dismemberment.
The source said that Israel requested the funds to underwrite GHF’s operations for 180 days.
The Israeli government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The two sources said that some US officials have concerns with the plan because of the overcrowding that has affected the aid distribution hubs run by GHF’s contractor, and violence nearby.
Those officials also want well-established non-governmental organizations experienced in running aid operations in Gaza and elsewhere to be involved in the operation if the State Department approves the funds for GHF, a position that Israel likely will oppose, the sources said.
Gaza hospital officials have said more than 80 people had been shot dead and hundreds wounded near GHF’s distribution points between June 1-3.
Since launching its operation, the GHF has opened three hubs, but over the past two days, only two of them have been functioning.
Witnesses blamed Israeli soldiers for the killings. The Israeli military said it fired warning shots on two days, while on Tuesday it said soldiers had fired at Palestinian “suspects” advancing toward their positions.


Activist boat says rescues migrants en route to Gaza

Updated 06 June 2025
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Activist boat says rescues migrants en route to Gaza

  • The Madleen has “a 12-member crew of peaceful activists” headed for Gaza “with the aim of breaking the blockade of Palestine by the state of Israel,” the March to Gaza Greece group said

ATHENS: A vessel organized by an international activist coalition to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza has rescued several migrants from the sea near Crete, a support group in Greece said on Friday.
The Madleen, launched by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, said it had received a distress signal from a boat in the Mediterranean, forcing it to change course off the coast of Crete.
The Madleen has “a 12-member crew of peaceful activists” headed for Gaza “with the aim of breaking the blockade of Palestine by the state of Israel,” the March to Gaza Greece group said.
“Upon arrival (at the scene), it discovered that the boat was sinking with approximately 30-35 people aboard.”
At that point, the Madleen was approached by a ship that initially identified itself as Egyptian.
“The activists aboard the Madleen quickly realized that this was a false identification and that the ship was, in fact, a Libyan coast guard vessel,” they said.
“Libya is not considered a safe country and for this reason some of the refugees jumped into the sea to avoid being returned there.
“The Madleen rescued four Sudanese individuals who had jumped into the water and brought them aboard.”
After several hours of calls for assistance, a Frontex vessel eventually picked up the rescued individuals, the group said, referring to the European Union’s border and coast guard agency.
The Madleen sailed from Sicily on Sunday.
Those on board include climate activist Greta Thunberg.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, launched in 2010, is a non-violent international movement supporting Palestinians.
It combines humanitarian aid with political protest against the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
Israel has come under increasing international criticism over the critical humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territory.
It blocked all aid into Gaza on March 2. The United Nations warned on May 30 that the entire population of more than two million was at risk of famine.
Fighters from Palestinian group Hamas launched an attack on Israel on October 7, 2023.
A total of 1,218 people died, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
The militants abducted 251 hostages, 55 of whom remain in Gaza, including 32 the Israeli military says are dead.
Since October 2023, Israel’s retaliatory war on Hamas-run Gaza has killed 54,677 people there, mostly civilians, according to the Gaza health ministry.
The United Nations deems the health ministry figures to be reliable.
The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.