The Israeli occupation forces have launched more than a thousand attacks with artillery shells containing internationally banned white phosphorus in populated areas since the start of their bloody war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, according to human rights data.

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Observatory said in a statement on Thursday that it documented the Israeli occupation’s indiscriminate use of white phosphorus, an incendiary substance that burns human flesh and can cause lifelong suffering, in populated areas in Gaza City and its north as an additional weapon to escalate genocide and forced displacement.

It confirmed that he had received reports that the Israeli occupation carried out 300 attacks with white phosphorus within a period not exceeding 40 minutes, on the evening of Wednesday, November 15, on a populated square in the town of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip.

According to the statement; The night before, a large number of white phosphorus shells were monitored in a crowded area in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, north of Gaza City.

A similar launch had also occurred on several occasions in the "Al-Shati" refugee camp, west of Gaza, and the town and camp of "Jabalia", north of the Gaza Strip.

Residents of the Gaza Strip said that they suffered from severe shortness of breath and coughing as a result of inhaling white phosphorus, amid extremely unpleasant odors spreading in the air, and a significant obstruction of vision due to the thick white smoke, according to the statement.

People exposed to white phosphorus can suffer respiratory damage, organ failure, and other serious, life-altering injuries, including burns that are extremely difficult to treat and cannot be extinguished with water.

The Euro-Mediterranean Observatory said: The escalation in the use of white phosphorus and smoke bombs targeting crowded residential areas comes within the framework of forced displacement and ethnic cleansing committed by the Israeli occupation by forcing half of Gaza’s population to leave their homes, shelters, and hospitals and move to areas south of the Gaza Valley.

It stressed that the occupation continues to violate the principles of proportionality and discrimination in its indiscriminate attacks on the Gaza Strip by directly targeting the lives and health of civilians, including the use of internationally prohibited weapons in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law and the rules of war.

It also pointed out that the occupation used explosive bombs with huge destructive effects in populated areas, which represents the most serious threat to civilians in contemporary armed conflicts. This explains the severity of the massive destruction and the leveling of entire residential neighborhoods and turning them into rubble and ruin in the Gaza Strip.

It recalled that the rules of international humanitarian law stipulate that the protection of civilians is obligatory in all cases and under any circumstances, and that killing civilians is a war crime in both international and non-international armed conflicts, and may amount to a crime against humanity.

The Euro-Mediterranean Observatory warned that the use of white phosphorus is prohibited under international law and it should never be aimed at or near inhabited residential areas and civilian infrastructure.

It renewed the call for the formation of an independent international investigation committee into the internationally prohibited weapons that Israel has used and is still using against civilians in Gaza and to hold those responsible for that accountable, including those who issued orders, planned and implemented them.