This comes as Zionist tanks and artillery continue to shell northern and eastern Gaza, while fighter jets keep pounding other civilian targets in the densely-populated region.

Palestinian officials say this has been the bloodiest day in the Gaza Strip in five years.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military warned the residents of the Shujaiyya district to evacuate during a temporary ceasefire it had earlier announced.

The Israeli army has announced that 13 soldiers from its Golani Brigade have been killed in overnight fighting in Gaza's eastern Shujaiyya district.

This raises to 18, the official number of Zionist soldiers killed since late Thursday when the army began a major ground offensive against Gaza.

However, Palestinian resistance fighters insists that they have killed dozens of Zionist forces within Gaza as well as in operations inside the Israeli-occupied territories.

According to figures provided by emergency services, the total number of people killed since the Israeli operation on July 8 stands at nearly 435. More than 3,000 people have also been injured in the attacks.

Sources say more than half of the victims in Gaza are women and children.

Medics are warning of a serious humanitarian crisis in the impoverished Palestinian enclave as hospitals are running out of basic medical supplies.

Palestinian Authority has declared three days of national mourning following the brutal shelling by Zionist forces.

Anti-Israel rallies are being held worldwide in condemnation of Tel Aviv's atrocities against Palestinians. The protesters urge an immediate end to the bloodshed in Gaza.

Similar protests were also held in the West Bank, Chile, Lebanon, Turkey, Britain, Australia and Switzerland.

The protesters burned Israel's flags and called for an end to its aggression on Gaza. They also demanded the boycott of Israeli-made products.

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