Israeli strike on Gaza 'equivalent to chemical weapons', report finds

Al Haq group investigations found Israeli shelling to be 'chemical warfare by indirect means'

A Palestinian worker clears the rubble of a destroyed building on the first anniversary of the May 2021 conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza city. AFP

An Israeli attack on an agrochemical warehouse in Gaza last year amounted to an indirect use of chemical weapons, a Palestinian human rights group said on Tuesday.

The Khudair Pharmaceutical and Agricultural Tools warehouse, located in the northern town of Beit Lahia in Gaza, was shelled during the war last year, creating a toxic plume that left residents with health problems.

The strike was carried out by the Israeli Defence Forces on May 15, 2021.

The attack ignited hundreds of tonnes of pesticides, seeds, fertilisers and other chemicals as well as nylon and plastic sheeting, and plastic piping.

Fifty tonnes of material in the warehouse was hazardous, the NGO Al Haq, in partnership with Open Source Intelligence analysts Forensic Architecture, found during five months of research.

Al Haq's findings were based on original photos and drone footage, interviews with local residents as well as CCTV footage from the Khudair family, through which researchers were able to construct a 3D model of the warehouse.

The report described the Israeli shelling as “chemical warfare by indirect means”.

It said the strike was the first in a series of deliberate attacks on Gaza’s economic and industrial infrastructure.

Nearly half a dozen other warehouses and factories were also shelled.

Local residents suffered from diarrhoea, vomiting and intense stomach pains after the attack, according to the report.

“There is no military justification for [advanced smoke projectiles] to be used here. It is inherently inaccurate and unsuitable for use in an urban environment,” Chris Cobb-Smith, a munitions expert, said in the report.

Al Haq routinely provides information to the International Criminal Court in The Hague on reported Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The 11-day war in May 2021 between Israel and Hamas resulted in the death of 256 people in Gaza and 14 in Israel.

The temporary truce allowed Palestinian emergency services and residents to enter areas that had for days been too dangerous to go into.

Palestinian health official Ashraf Al Qedra said 132 bodies were recovered from the rubble of neighbourhoods devastated by Israeli bombardment and fighting between troops and Gaza militants.

Residents of the Shujaieh area east of Gaza City, where thousands fled last Sunday and Monday, returned to find homes, businesses and mosques reduced to piles of debris.

Structures in the area that were not destroyed were damaged by artillery fire that punctured walls and left half-metre-deep divots in streets.

A Palestinian man rescues his horse from the rubble of homes destroyed by Israeli military forces in the northern district of Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian medics at the scene where an ambulance driver and medic were killed by the Israeli army yesterday as they entered today to the northern district of Beit Hanoun.

A Palestinian stands in a damaged window against the massive destruction of a homes reduced to rubble.

Apart from those killed, more than 6,000 Palestinians have been injured over the past 19 days.

Palestinian women mourn the loss of their homes in the northern district of Beit Hanoun in the Gaza Strip.