[News] Detailed Legal Report on Israel’s Khudair Warehouse Chemical Attack on the Gaza Strip
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Sat May 28 11:14:37 EDT 2022
Al-Haq Launches Detailed Legal Report on Israel’s Khudair Warehouse
Chemical Attack on the Gaza Strip supporting Forensic Architecture
Investigation
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*Al-Haq Launches Detailed Legal Report on Israel’s Khudair Warehouse
Chemical Attack on the Gaza Strip supporting Forensic Architecture
Investigation*
*Date: 28 May 2022*
Al-Haq’s Legal Research and Advocacy Department has released a
comprehensive legal report, “Khudair Warehouse: Israel’s Chemical Attack
on the Gaza Strip”. This report builds on the inaugural investigation of
the newly launched Al-Haq Forensic Architecture Investigative Unit. The
investigation examines Israel’s targeted attack and destruction of the
Khudair Warehouse by the Israeli Occupying Forces (IOF) during Israel’s
widescale May 2021 military offensive on the Gaza Strip.[1] <#_ftn1> The
IOF attack on the chemical warehouse, created a chemical cloud that
spread chemical waste over the people and environment of Gaza, poisoning
the population, amounting to the indirect use of a chemical weapon,
prohibited under international la
On the 15 May 2021, on the fifth day of the May 2021 offensive against
Gaza, the IOF attacked the Khudair Agrochemical Warehouse, located in
the northern Gaza Strip, in the Beit Lahiya area.[2] <#_ftn2> The
Khudair warehouse was the largest warehouse for agricultural supplies
within Gaza, housing over 50 percent of agricultural supplies within the
Gaza Strip and making the warehouse particularly vital for farming
within the Gaza Strip.[3] <#_ftn3>
At around 5.46 pm, six artillery shells landed on the warehouse over the
course of several minutes.[4] <#_ftn4> The IOF did not attack with
explosive shells, but instead used rounds that emitted heavy smoke, with
the ammunition burning at an intense heat.[5] <#_ftn5> Al-Haq’s Forensic
Architecture Investigative Unit identified the munition used as the M150
Smoke HC 155mm ammunition developed by the Israeli weapons manufacturer,
Elbit Systems.[6] <#_ftn6> By 5.56 pm the plastic stored within the
warehouse caught fire, starting the major chemical fire that, according
to field documentation, would release fumes for 22 days.[7] <#_ftn7>
Following the attack, a chemical plume formed from the fire at the
warehouse which soon spread over northern Gaza, moving southwes from the
location of the warehouse, covering an area of around 5.7 kilometres.
Using information gathered by Al-Haq and Al-Mezan field researchers, as
well as the in-depth analysis of the Forensic Architecture Investigative
Unit’s investigation, this report explains how through the attack and
destruction of the warehouse, the IOF acting with knowledge, creating a
chemical weapon via the destruction of the agrochemical products. The
report also highlights how the attack violated general principles of
international humanitarian law and outlines how the attack constitutes a
number of war crimes under the Rome Statute of the International
Criminal Court, as well as its contribution to the crime of apartheid
against the Palestinian people both in Gaza and as a whole.[8] <#_ftn8>
The report also provides several recommendations to the international
community, including the United Nations, to help bring Israel to account
for its crimes against the Palestinian people. The attack on the Khudair
warehouse, and other industrial targets of a similar nature, indicates a
direct attempt to use the chemical contents of civilian objects against
the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip in the form of an indirect
chemical weapon.
In light of this report and the investigation by the Forensic
Architecture Investigative Unit, Al-Haq calls on:
* The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and the UN
Commission of Inquiry to take into particular account Israel’s
indiscriminate targeting of civilian objects in the Gaza Strip and,
in the case of the Khudair warehouse, launching an indirect chemical
weapon attack against the Palestinian people, and to fully
investigate these violations as war crimes under international
criminal law;
* For the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and the UN
Commission of Inquiry to consider attacks on civilian property as
amounting to war crimes, and evaluate their crucial contribution to
inhumane acts of apartheid under the Rome Statute and where
relevant, the Apartheid Convention and international human rights law;
* To that effect, for the Prosecutor of the International Criminal
Court and the UN Commission of Inquiry to include Israel’s targeting
of commercial property into the ongoing investigations, highlighting
the chemical attack caused and to request a factfinding mission to
determine the intention of the IOF in targeting facilities such as
the Khudair warehouse, be it malicious intent or reckless disregard;
* For Third States to recognize Israel’s unlawful destruction of
Palestinian property, primarily in Gaza but also across the OPT, as
a fundamental element that enables Israel to further its colonial
project in Palestine, and to entrench its apartheid regime over the
Palestinian people as a whole;
* For host States to Elbit Systems, including the United Kingdom, to
act in compliance with their responsibilities under the UN Guiding
Principles on Business and Human Rights and hold Elbit Systems
accountable for human rights harms;
* Additionally, for Third States to stop supplying Israel with
weaponry and munitions used to commit war crimes, crimes against
humanity and enforce apartheid against the Palestinian people as a
whole, particularly in the Gaza Strip but also across the OPT;
* For the United Nations to exhort Israel to respect Palestine and the
Palestinian People’s human rights, including the inherent right to
self-determination;
* For international civil society to further support the Palestinian
people’s struggle against Israel’s apartheid regime and colonial
settler project.
See our full report “Khudair Warehouse, Israel’s Chemical attack on the
Gaza Strip” here
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=6d5a5639d7&e=08c14cf485>
See Al-Haq’s Forensic Architecture Investigative Unit’s “The Shelling of
Khudair Warehouse” video here - https://vimeo.com/714467066
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=89464bd26d&e=08c14cf485>
and press release here
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=7deeef3fa8&e=08c14cf485>
See Forensic Architecture’s investigation “The Shelling of Khudair
Warehouse: Chemical Warfare by indirect means” here
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=f594bdefb3&e=08c14cf485>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[1] <#_ftnref1> Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, Al-Haq, and PCHR,
‘Assault on Gaza in Numbers’, (2022) available at
<http://mezan.org/en/uploads/files/16442214671081.pdf
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=f523165e2d&e=08c14cf485>>
[2] <#_ftnref2> Al-Haq’s Forensic Architecture Investigative Unit Script
on file with Al-Haq; Affidavits on file with Al-Haq.
[3] <#_ftnref3> Ibid.
[4] <#_ftnref4> Ibid.
[5] <#_ftnref5> Ibid.
[6] <#_ftnref6> Ibid.
[7] <#_ftnref7> Ibid.
[8] <#_ftnref8>Al-Haq, ‘Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Submit
File to the ICC, Urge Prosecutor to Open Cases from Attack on
Palestinians in Gaza in May 2021’ (24 May 2022), available at:
<https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/20043.html
<https://alhaq.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=10071401ba4201bc1a4992f68&id=ed2a7927b4&e=08c14cf485>>
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