Editor,
I believe (along with many others) that the amount of force being used by the Israelis against the Palestinians of Gaza is, quite simply, ridiculous and out of all proportion.

Admittedly, the Israelis have suffered some casualties from Hamas rocket attacks but the numbers are small, The Palestinian casualties are huge.

I was also alarmed to see that phosphorus bombs are being used, those pretty firework-like illuminations that scatter ribbons of light. Are any of your readers aware of the type of death they incur?

Skin contact with the gas spread by these bombs causes skin to blister and peel off, leaving a skinless, raw corpse. Inhalation causes slow suffocation (it takes approx. excruciating minutes to die.) Imagine children dying this way . . . they are.

The phosphorus bomb is illegal under international law. It isn't a tidy weapon, pinpointing a particular area - the wind direction often sends it sweeping elsewhere. And it does.

Have you seen the news pictures - how those luminous tentacles drift lazily to God-knows where? The Palestinian problem has to be solved in a more humane way.

The barbaric, random slaughtering of innocents isn't the answer.

Halima Curran
Souk al Juma, Tripoli, Libya