Israel striking Gaza with white phosphorous bombs: Palestine

Israel striking Gaza with white phosphorous bombs: Palestine

Web Desk
October 11, 2023

Israel striking Gaza with white phosphorous bombs: Palestine

Israel striking Gaza with white phosphorous bombs.
There has been no comment from Israel regarding the accusation.
The relentless bombing campaign has resulted in the destruction.

Palestine has accused Israel of employing white phosphorus bombs against civilians in the Karama neighborhood of the Gaza Strip, as Israel pledged to intensify its response to a Hamas attack with a ground offensive.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry asserted, “The Israeli occupation is using internationally banned white phosphorus bombs against the Palestinians in the Karama neighborhood in northern Gaza.”

Rami Abdo, the founder of the European Observatory for Human Rights, shared a video on X that he claimed depicted Israel’s use of phosphorus bombs.

He wrote, “Israeli military forces are using toxic white phosphorus [bombs] on densely populated areas northwest of Gaza City.”

Human Rights Watch, a New York-based rights group, had previously mentioned reports of Israel using white phosphorus bombs in Gaza during prior conflicts.

The use of white phosphorus as a smokescreen and for covering troop movements is considered legal, but the 1980 Geneva Convention prohibits its use in densely populated areas.

There has been no comment from Israel regarding the accusation.

The Israeli military reported that dozens of its fighter jets targeted over 200 locations overnight in a neighborhood of Gaza City that Hamas had allegedly used to launch a significant wave of attacks.

Gaza’s health ministry indicated that at least 900 people have been killed and 4,600 wounded in the densely populated coastal enclave.

Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip launched a deadly attack in southern Israel, the deadliest Palestinian attack in Israel’s history on Saturday. Israeli public broadcaster Kan reported that the death toll over the weekend had reached 1,200.

Most of the victims were civilians, shot in their homes, on the streets, or at an outdoor dance party. Many Israelis and foreigners were captured and taken to Gaza as hostages, with some appearing in social media videos being paraded through the streets.

Hamas claimed that the attack was in response to Israeli violations in the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem and increased settler violence.

According to the United Nations, over 260,000 people displaced in Gaza and more than 260,000 people have been compelled to leave their homes in the Gaza Strip due to the ongoing heavy Israeli bombardments from the air, land, and sea.

UN humanitarian agency OCHA reported on Tuesday that “over 263,934 people in Gaza are believed to have fled their homes,” and this number is expected to increase further.

OCHA also noted that about 3,000 people had been displaced “due to previous escalations” before the recent conflict.

The relentless bombing campaign has resulted in the destruction of over 1,000 housing units, with 560 of them being so severely damaged that they are no longer habitable, according to Palestinian authorities.

Nearly 175,500 individuals sought shelter in 88 schools run by the UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees, UNRWA among the displaced.

Additionally, more than 14,500 others had fled to 12 government schools, while close to 74,000 were estimated to be staying with relatives, neighbors, or taking shelter in churches and other facilities.

The number of displaced people within Gaza “represents the highest number of people displaced since the 50-day escalation of hostilities in 2014,” as stated by OCHA.

The situation in Gaza is becoming increasingly challenging for those who have not been displaced, with difficulties in meeting basic needs.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres cautioned that Israel’s imposition of a “complete siege” on the already blockaded Gaza Strip, which includes cutting off food, water, fuel, and electricity, would exacerbate an already dire humanitarian situation.

Airstrike on Hamas commander’s home Reports from Israeli media indicates that the Israeli military launched an airstrike on the home of relatives of Mohammad Deif, the Hamas military commander, in the Qizan an Najjar neighborhood in Khan Younis, a southern city in the Gaza Strip.

According to Palestinian reports, Deif’s father, brother, son, and the brother’s granddaughter were killed in the attack.

Hamas has said the strikes killed two of its senior figures: Zakaria Muammar, who led its economics section, and Jawad Abu Shamala, who coordinated ties with other Palestinian factions. The Israeli army also confirmed their deaths.

Additionally, four Palestinian journalists were killed in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City, as reported by media unions and officials.

EU opposes complete siege Israel imposed a total siege on Gaza on Monday, a region it has already blockaded for years, cutting off essential supplies including water, food, electricity, and other necessities.

European Union foreign ministers have called on Israel to refrain from cutting off essential supplies and have requested humanitarian corridors for those trying to flee. UN human rights chief Volker Turk emphasized that such sieges are prohibited under international humanitarian law.

Medical supplies, including oxygen, have become scarce at Gaza’s overwhelmed Al-Shifa hospital, according to Dr. Mohammed Ghonim, who works in the emergency room.

Israel reeling from surprise attack Israel has been taken aback by Hamas’s unprecedented ground, air, and sea assault, which began with thousands of rockets and has been compared to the 9/11 attacks in the United States.

Soldiers guarding the high-tech security barrier around Gaza recounted how the attack commenced with efforts to disable observation cameras and communications in the aftermath. They acknowledged being caught off guard and unprepared for the assault.

Israel faced the prospect of a multi-front war following three days of clashes on its northern border with Lebanon. There was an exchange of fire between Israel and forces in Syria after Israel’s military reported that munitions were fired towards the Golan Heights, which it has occupied since 1967 for the first time since the Hamas attack.

Mourners carried two coffins draped in yellow Hezbollah flags, containing the bodies of two fighters who were reportedly killed in Israeli strikes the previous day in the southern Lebanese village of Khirbet Selm. A third fighter was also killed, according to the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.

The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades claimed another round of rocket fire from south Lebanon toward Israel, with the Israeli army confirming that it had responded with artillery fire on Tuesday.

The situation has been described as “a state of war” by residents in northern Israel, near the Lebanese border. Unrest has also surged in the West Bank, with 15 Palestinians killed since Saturday.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the veteran leader of Israel’s hard-right coalition, has called for an “emergency government of national unity” following his administration’s proposal for judicial reforms, which had divided the nation and even its military this year before the war brought the nation closer together.

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