{"id":20982,"date":"2026-03-13T17:00:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T16:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foundationmaxvanderstoel.nl\/?p=20982"},"modified":"2026-03-18T10:31:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T09:31:55","slug":"massale-ontheemding-witte-fosfor-en-ecocide-waar-is-onze-aandacht-voor-libanon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foundationmaxvanderstoel.nl\/en\/massale-ontheemding-witte-fosfor-en-ecocide-waar-is-onze-aandacht-voor-libanon\/","title":{"rendered":"Mass displacement, white phosphorus and ecocide: where is our focus on Lebanon?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: Flickr<\/a>
\n<\/em>
\nBy now, the images are painfully familiar: families rushing out of their homes, residential areas turning into rubble and a population that seems to have nowhere safe. Only this time, these images are not from Iran or Gaza, but from Lebanon.<\/p>\n

Since the beginning of March, the Israeli offensive in the country has intensified rapidly. Hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing, villages are burning after bombings, and accusations of illegal use of white phosphorus are resurfacing. Yet political attention on Lebanon remains remarkably limited.<\/p>\n

700,000 displaced persons<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since early March 2026, violence between Israel and Hezbollah has once again escalated sharply. Following attacks by Hezbollah, in response to the death of Iranian Ayatollah Khamenei, Israel launched a large-scale military campaign in Lebanon, including bombing of several cities and mass evacuation orders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The impact on civilians is huge. According to UN organisations, almost 700,000 people displaced<\/a>, including about 200,000 children. Roads became clogged with cars and people leaving their homes in a hurry. Hospitals were damaged or closed, while shelters became overcrowded.<\/p>\n

Lebanon, which has been in a deep economic and political crisis for years, hardly has the capacity to accommodate such a huge influx of refugees. The financial collapse of 2019, the explosion at the port of Beirut in 2020 and the hosting 1.5 million Syrian refugees<\/a> have depleted the country economically and politically. The new wave of displacement further destabilises the country.<\/p>\n

The use of white phosphorus<\/strong><\/p>\n

In addition to the humanitarian crisis, international concern is growing over the weapons deployed by Israel. Beginning March 2026 Human Rights Watch published evidence<\/a> that Israeli artillery fired white phosphorus over a residential area in the southern Lebanese village of Yohmor. The organisation verified footage showing the phosphorus exploding over houses and causing fires in homes and vehicles.<\/p>\n

White phosphorus is a chemical that spontaneously ignites on contact with oxygen and reaches extremely high temperatures. It is sometimes used to create smoke screens or mark targets, but use over densely populated areas can cause severe burns and is prohibited under international humanitarian law. Victims of white phosphorus exposure can be severe burns and <\/a>respiratory damage<\/a> run<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is not the first time such allegations have surfaced. Amnesty International suggested as early as 2023<\/a> that Israel used phosphorus ammunition in attacks on villages along the Lebanese border, injuring civilians. The consequences are not only human but also ecological. In earlier phases of the conflict, the use of white phosphorus led to dozens of forest fires and thousands of <\/a>hectares<\/a> devastated farmland <\/a>in southern Lebanon. For farmers and village communities, this means loss of their land, their income and ultimately their future.<\/p>\n

War on the landscape<\/strong><\/p>\n

In addition to white phosphorus, Israel also uses chemical herbicides, so reveals research by PAX<\/a>. Their investigation describes how Israeli aircraft sprayed chemical herbicides over agricultural areas along the Lebanese border. The purpose of such operations would be to remove vegetation so that the army has better visibility of border areas.<\/p>\n

According to laboratory analyses by the Lebanese Ministries of Agriculture and Environment, some samples of the sprayed substances contained glyphosate concentrations of up to twenty to thirty times higher<\/a> than under normal use. The consequences are serious: destroyed harvests, contaminated soil and a direct threat to farmers\u201c livelihoods. Environmentalists and academics even speak of a form of \u201decocide\", with the landscape itself becoming a target in the war.<\/p>\n

Lebanese stuck between Netanyahu and Hezbollah<\/strong><\/p>\n

A complex political reality is playing out in Lebanon. Israel says its military campaign is aimed at weakening and eventually eliminating Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia that fires rockets into Israel from Lebanon. On paper, Israel and the Lebanese government want the same thing<\/a>: a disarmed Hezbollah. But where Beirut tries to weaken the militia mainly through diplomacy and internal political pressure, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government opts for military escalation.<\/p>\n

For many Lebanese, it feels like their country is once again becoming a battlefield of a war bigger than themselves. The Lebanese people are caught between two powers: on the one hand, Hezbollah, which is dragging the country into a regional confrontation, and on the other, Netanyahu's Israeli government, which thinks it can break the militia militarily. It is civilians who are paying the price.<\/p>\n

A call for attention<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lebanon is once again at a breaking point. A country that has struggled for years with economic collapse and political instability is now once again facing war, mass displacement and severe environmental damage. But this escalation is not occurring in a vacuum. The Israeli government's military strategy, supported and politically shielded by the United States, threatens to pull the region further into another cycle of violence. As the geopolitical interests of states are fought out, it is once again Lebanese citizens who are losing their homes, their land and their future.<\/p>\n

If the international community truly claims to stand up for human rights and the protection of civilians in war, Lebanon can no longer be ignored. European governments and international organisations will not only have to scale up humanitarian aid, but also show the political courage to call allies to account when international law is violated. As long as Israel and its main ally, the United States, can continue their strategy without significant consequences, entire generations in the region will continue to grow up in war.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bron: Flickr De beelden zijn inmiddels pijnlijk herkenbaar: families die halsoverkop hun huizen verlaten, woonwijken die veranderen in puin en een bevolking die nergens veilig lijkt. Alleen komen deze beelden deze keer niet uit Iran of Gaza, maar uit Libanon. Sinds begin maart is het Isra\u00eblische offensief in het land snel ge\u00efntensiveerd. Honderdduizenden mensen slaan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":20983,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-klimaat","category-uncategorized","location-libanon","region-midden-oosten-en-noord-afrika"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foundationmaxvanderstoel.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foundationmaxvanderstoel.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foundationmaxvanderstoel.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foundationmaxvanderstoel.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foundationmaxvanderstoel.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20982"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/foundationmaxvanderstoel.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21004,"href":"https:\/\/foundationmaxvanderstoel.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20982\/revisions\/21004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foundationmaxvanderstoel.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foundationmaxvanderstoel.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foundationmaxvanderstoel.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foundationmaxvanderstoel.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}