ISRAEL faces mounting accusations that its military committed war crimes during its massive 22- day offensive on Hamas in the densely-populated Gaza Strip.

The main charges centre on the army’s alleged use of white phosphorous during the campaign, Israel’s deadliest ever on a Palestinian territory.

The allegations first began surfacing a week after the Jewish state sent ground troops into Gaza on January 3 following a week of air and naval bombardment of the territory – one of the most densely populated places on earth where half of the 1.5 million people are under the age of 18.

Three days into a tenuous ceasefire between Israel and Gaza militants, London-based Amnesty International said there was no doubt Israel used white phosphorous – a substance permitted for creating a smokescreen on the battlefield, but prohibited near civilians.

“We saw streets and alleyways littered with evidence of the use of white phosphorus, including still burning wedges and the remnants of the shells and canisters fired by the Israeli army,” said Christopher Cobb-Smith, a weapons expert touring Gaza as part of a four- person fact-finding team.

Donatella Rovera, Amnesty’s researcher on Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, said it could amount to a war crime.

“Such extensive use of this weapon in Gaza’s densely-populated residential neighbourhoods is inherently indiscriminate,” she said. “Its repeated use in this manner, despite evidence of its indiscriminate effects and its toll on civilians, is a war crime.”

Israel has repeatedly insisted all of its weapons used were in line with international law and has blamed Hamas for the high number of civilian casualties.

“Phosphorus is legal according to international law,” said army spokesperson Avital Leibovich. “We used munitions according to international law; they (Hamas) were committing war crimes by putting the civilians in the frontline,” she said.

“Naturally, they are endangering the lives of civilians. Hamas is accountable.”

Rights organisations plan to ask the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague to probe war crimes allegations against Israel.

Venezuela and Bolivia, which broke ties with Israel over the Gaza war, have also expressed interest. But such efforts have little chance of succeeding since Israel is not a state member of the ICC.

United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon paid his first visit to Gaza yesterday, where Israeli troops remain deployed.

The army said a total troop pullout was not under discussion. “For the moment, no one is talking about the total withdrawal of troops,” said the army’s Leibovich.

However, the ceasefire appeared to be holding, despite a doctor’s claim that Israeli soldiers had shot dead a Palestinian farmer in the north of the strip yesterday. The army could not confirm the report that the man had been killed near the town of Jabailya by shots fired by troops close to Gaza’s border.

Doctors said two Palestinian children died in Gaza City when an Israeli shell they had been playing with exploded.

The UN chief was also due to visit the southern Israeli town of Sderot, 5km from the Gaza border, that has taken the brunt of Palestinian rocket fire since 2000.

In Kuwait, an Arab summit was concluded yesterday with aid pledges to help rebuild the Gaza Strip. Saudi King Abdullah pledged one billion dollars to rebuild the battered territory. — Sapa-AFP