TEHRAN, Jan 17: Iran accused Israel of using white-phosphorus munitions in Gaza and called for an investigation in a letter to an international watchdog agency made available to media on Saturday.The accusation came after UN humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes on Thursday said a warehouse in a UN compound in Gaza that came under Israeli fire was apparently hit by white-phosphorus shells.

Human Rights Watch has also accused Israel of using white phosphorus, which can be used as an incendiary weapon as well as making smoke screens or marking targets, during its offensive in Gaza launched in late December.

Western officials say white phosphorus is not specifically banned, but a 1983 international convention prohibits the use of incendiary weapons against civilians.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called, in a letter to the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), for an investigation “into the evidence of this tragedy” and the dispatch of aid to victims.

“It is becoming increasingly alarming that the Zionist regime’s troops are employing prohibited weapons with impunity against the population of Gaza ... such as white phosphorus,” Mottaki wrote to OPCW Director-General Rogelio Pfirter.—Reuters