Gaza City - After 10 days of incessant Israeli airstrikes and two days of ground fighting, the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is quickly worsening according to residents.

Residents of Gaza City, who have been without electricity for days, say they have only small amounts of drinking water. With even candles now a scarce commodity, Gaza City residents sit in the dark - many of them in winter coats as they keep windows open to avoid glass shards flying inside their homes from a possible nearby blast.

Gaza/Tel Aviv  - Israel pounded Gaza from the air, sea and ground on the second full day of its ground offensive Monday, and Israeli leaders said the offensive will continue until the country's aims are met.

Palestinians said Israeli shelling had killed at least 24 Gazan civilians in the Strip, 13 of them children of two families

The Israeli army refused to give updated casualty figures from the day's fighting, saying a toll would only be released once a day, in the evening.

Gaza City - Top Islamic Hamas movement leader Mahmoud al- Zahar said on Monday that his movement would achieve "victory" and "would defeat Israel at the end."

Al-Zahar, in hiding somewhere in the Gaza Strip, spoke for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip ten days ago which has so far left 527 Palestinians killed and 2,500 wounded.

"Victory (against Israel) is nearby and is coming Inshallah (God willing)," he told the pro-Hamas Gaza-based al-Aqsa TV. "The rockets of resistance defeated the Israeli military theory."

London, Jan 5: To screen its assault on the heavily populated Gaza strip, Israel is believed to be using controversial white phosphorus shells, whose use is banned under the Geneva conventions as an offensive weapon against civilians, but its use as a smokescreen is not prohibited by international law.

The weapon, used by British and US forces in Iraq, can cause horrific burns but is not illegal if used as a smokescreen, The Times reported.

As the Israeli army stormed to the edges of Gaza City and the Palestinian death toll topped 500, the shells could be seen spreading tentacles of thick white smoke to cover the troops' advance.

Gaza/Tel Aviv - Israel launched airstrikes on some 30 targets of Hamas overnight, pressing on with its air campaign against the radical Islamic movement Monday, two days after it widened its Gaza offensive and sent in also ground troops.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy was due to travel to the Middle East Monday for talks in Cairo, Ramallah and Jerusalem, as part of international efforts to achieve a diplomatic solution.