Clarification o the White Phosphurous Use

The story:

The United States sold phosphorus artillery shells made at the Pine Bluff Arsenal to Israel — the same kind of rounds allegedly used against civilians during the recent fighting in Gaza...International law allows for the use of the phosphorus shells, but not in areas where civilians could be harmed by the burning rounds.

The Pine Bluff Arsenal, a 13,000-acre base near Little Rock that once housed some of the Army's deadliest chemical and biological weapons, advertises itself as the only plant in North America capable of manufacturing the white phosphorus rounds...

The State Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity over the sensitivity of the issue, stressed that the white phosphorus rounds should only be used to "obscure, and thereby protect, troops and their movements." The official said the United States would take any unauthorized use of the rounds seriously and "would take appropriate, corrective action."

...The 1980 Convention on Conventional Weapons prohibits use of the substance as an incendiary weapon against civilian populations and in air attacks against military forces in civilian areas. However, neither Israel nor the U.S. signed onto that part of the international agreement.

In 2004, U.S. troops in Iraq used white phosphorous as a weapon against insurgent strongholds during the battle of Fallujah, Pentagon officials have said. The Pentagon denied troops used the rounds against civilians.

Amnesty International has issued a report about a shelling in a residential area of Gaza City, concluding that Israel used white phosphorus rounds improperly...