DUBAI, June 8. /TASS/. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has used white phosphorus munitions in the south of the Gaza Strip, Lebanon’s Al Mayadeen TV channel reported.

According to the news outlet, the IDF was shelling the area north of Rafah with incendiary projectiles with multiple fires breaking out as a result.

Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza-based Palestinian radical group Hamas staged a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel has declared a state of war readiness; announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians; and began delivering air strikes on the enclave and certain parts of Lebanon and Syria, followed by a ground operation in the enclave. Clashes are underway in the West Bank as well.