Medico: Israel’s white phosphorus and glyphosate point back to Germany’s Bayer group

Human rights organisation Medico International and the German network “Coordination gegen Bayer-Gefahren“ (Coordination against Bayer Dangers, CBG) have reported that the glyphosate and white phosphorus used by the Israeli occupation forces in Lebanon were produced in Germany.

At the beginning of February this year, reports emerged in the international media alleging that the Israeli army had deployed the environmental toxin glyphosate in southern Lebanon and in occupied Syria.

According to Lebanon’s Ministry of Agriculture, glyphosate concentrations in some samples taken in the region exceeded “normal levels by around 20 to 30 times”. Lebanon’s president Joseph Aoun described the situation as “environmental and health crimes”.

The incident is of particular relevance to Germany, as the US-based glyphosate manufacturer Monsanto was acquired in 2018 by the German chemical and pharmaceutical giant Bayer, one of the world’s largest chemical corporations. As a result, not only did Germany’s mainstream media take up the issue – despite their otherwise consistent reluctance to report on Israeli war crimes – but the matter also reached the agenda of the German Bundestag.

However, there has been little in the way of public outrage. After a few critical remarks, the issue quickly faded from public debate, and it is unlikely that a wider German audience is aware that Israel is not only carrying out a genocide in Gaza using German-supplied weapons, attacking Iran and Lebanon with German arms, enforcing the blockade of Gaza with German naval vessels, and raiding Gaza Solidarity flotillas with the same equipment, but is also reportedly using chemical agents produced with German industrial involvement.

That may now be changing. Last Thursday, the human rights organisation Medico International published a report titled “Cartographies of Destruction: Israel’s War Against Lebanon”, produced in cooperation with its Lebanese partner organisation “Public Works”. Alongside numerous alleged war crimes, the report also documents the repeated use of white phosphorus by Israel in Lebanon. According to the report, this substance also originates from Monsanto. Jan Pehrke of the CBG stated: “There is strong evidence that phosphorus used in the Middle East war comes from Bayer’s glyphosate production facility in Soda Springs in the United States.”

While it has long been known that Israel has repeatedly used white phosphorus in its wars on Gaza and Lebanon, the alleged use of glyphosate is a relatively new claim. However, Riad Othman, Middle East officer at Medico International, noted that the carcinogenic herbicide was already “tested” by the Israeli military in the Gaza Strip in 2014.

During its shareholders’ meeting in April 2026, the Bayer executive board denied directly supplying glyphosate to the Israeli or US military. However, it did not issue a corresponding denial regarding white phosphorus. Meanwhile, earlier this year, US President Donald Trump designated elemental phosphorus – used in the production of both white phosphorus and glyphosate – as critical to US “national security”.

This decision came roughly two weeks after reports of glyphosate use in Lebanon and Syria surfaced, and shortly before the US-Israeli strike on Iran, during which white phosphorus was also reportedly used.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.