TWENTY-THREE Gazans were killed on Sunday morning and dozens injured by illegal weapons that ensure the incineration of buildings and people hit by the explosives.
Israel is using phosphorus bombs and shells.
Dr Yusef Abu Rish at Gaza City’s Nasser hospital said that at least 55 people were injured early on Sunday by white phosphorus shells, banned under international law for use against civilians.
‘These people were burned over their bodies in a way that can only be caused by white phosphorus,’ said Abu Rish.
The total for the 16 days of Israeli strikes and ground fire is now at least 900 killed, 3,620 injured and 411 seriously wounded.
Sunday dawned with six more Palestinians confirmed dead in Gaza, mainly from Khuza’a village east of Khan Younis.
Overnight, Israeli warplanes shifted their sights to civilian homes in southern Gaza, then, after dawn, strikes began in the north.
Ground troops advanced towards Gaza City during the night. One contingent withdrew northward at dawn, while a second front southwest of Gaza City continued to advance to an abandoned Israeli settlement south of the city.
Those dead in the southern Strip include 41-year-old Hanan An-Najjar and another unidentified man. At least 50 were injured as Israeli strikes hit a dozen homes in Khuza’a village, many of which continue to burn after the near-dawn airstrikes.
The body of the 17-year-old Usama Abu Rajileh was identified among the dead in Khan Younis.
Attacks in the north began by killing four members of the Bashir family when Israeli airstrikes struck the family home in the Al-Karama neighbourhood northwest of Gaza City shortly after sunrise on Sunday. The family was in the home at the time and an unknown number were injured.
Witnesses said Ala Bashir (also known as Abu Sheib), his wife, mother-in-law and son were killed in the strike. Several other homes in the area were hit.
Strikes then shifted to the northern border town of Beit Lahiya, where locals reported the use of phosphoric bombs, which set hit homes ablaze. The strikes killed at least three from the Ma’rouf and Ghaban families and injured dozens.
• Nick Axarlis reports that last Saturday afternoon around 7,000 students and workers, along with Palestinian students and families, demonstrated in Athens against the Zionist invasion of Gaza.
The march was organised by the GSEE (Greek TUC), Palestinian organisations in Greece, the Coalition of the Radical Left party and other left-wing organisations.
The march stopped outside the US embassy that was heavily guarded by Greek riot police and demonstrators burned the US flag, threw fruit at the embassy building and shouted anti-imperialist slogans.
Then demonstrators marched to the Israeli Embassy where again they burned US and Israeli flags and shouted slogans against the Zionist massacres in Gaza and against the Arab states’ leaders.
