More than 1300 Palestinians dead, over 410 children,
100 women, and more than 5,300 wounded
(Numbers taken from the Hebrew press today, those numbers are already inaccurate, as more and more bodies are found under the rubble))
What would this mean in Britain with its population of 60 million, in comparative terms?
It would mean more than 52,000 dead, 16,500 of them children, and 212,000 wounded.
Breaking News: Gaza doctor’s tragedy caught on Israeli TV: YouTube
Palestinian doctor Ezzeldeen Abu al-Aish was giving Israel’s Channel 10 his daily account from inside the war zone in Gaza when three of his daughters were killed in an Israeli attack. In his report, he called for help as his house was attacked.
This is a very rare real time evidence of how Israel really works! After weeks of reporting from Gaza, in Hebrew, as a physician who treated thousands of Israelis, the IOF moves, on the last day of the war, to kill him and his family. Expect the usual lies and denials from the instigators of this senseless mass murder. The whole of Israel saw this on television, but I have heard of no public protest of any kind!
There will be no forgetting, or forgiving of their brutality. There shall be no peace with war criminals. We must work tirelessly, in all ways we can, to get those war criminal into the international Court of Justice as mass murderers!
Please send to those denuded people who still support Israel. The link to
send is:
More television footage about this is below:
Heartbroken Gaza Doctor’s Press Conference Attacked by Soldiers Mother
To see the full nastiness of Israel, watch this video. You will see no dead bodies, no torn-apart houses, no blood, yet you will witness the blind terror of the banality of evil, evil of the most daily variety in Israel, the evil of racist hatred towards those which Israel has hurt, time and again, even before it was created. To understand to full wickedness of Zionism, wartch this video of the father who has lost his three daughters, still, while in hospital, calling for peace, and being set upon by the Ugly Zionist. The Ugly Zionist is the one who says openly what the nice Zionist only thinks.
Below you can read the Hebrew Poem, nad my English translation, or Y Laor poignant poem, Cast Lead, which is about the celebrated writer, A B Yehoshua, and about the three dead daughters of Dr. Abu Al Aish. As far as I know, the newspapers in Israel chose not to publish the poem. Figures.
A Reuters report:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnEe2N-kxJk
The full interview on Israeli television Channel 10 TV with Dr. Abu Al Aish
Hamas announces ceasefire in Gaza: BBC
The Palestinian militant group Hamas has announced an immediate ceasefire with Israel in Gaza, according to Hamas officials. The group said it would hold fire for a week to give Israel time to withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip. The move came hours after a unilateral Israeli ceasefire came into effect. The cessation of hostilities was earlier cast into doubt by fresh rocket fire into Israel and an Israeli air strike on militants in Gaza. Hamas official Ayman Taha told the BBC that the ceasefire also applied to other militant groups.
Israel Bombs University Teachers Association in Gaza–Boycott Now!: PACBI
Occupied Palestine – PACBI learned today from its Steering Committee member, Dr. Haidar Eid, that the headquarters of the University Teachers Association-Palestine, in Gaza, was bombed by the Israeli occupation forces during their indiscriminate, willful destruction campaign in the Tal el-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City on Friday.
This latest wanton attack on an academic organization is far from being an exception. It is only the latest episode in what Oxford University academic Karma Nabulsi has termed “scholasticide,”[1] or Israel’s systematic and intentional destruction of Palestinian education centers. In its current war on Gaza alone, Israel has bombed the ministry of education, the Islamic University of Gaza, and tens of schools, including at least 4 UNRWA schools, after having largely destroyed the infrastructure of teaching throughout the year and a half of its illegal and criminal siege of the densely populated Gaza Strip.
The UTA headquarters is a detached two-story building that is clearly marked with the Association’s name. The bombed structure, which now stands without a roof, has sustained heavy structural damage and may be in danger of collapsing any time.
Haringey Justice for Palestine: poster of the public meeting, Jan 21, 2009
gaza-poster
Survival instinct or Jewish paranoia?: Avigail Abarbanel, The Electronic Intifada
In late 2002 Yonatan Shapira, a former Israeli Black Hawk helicopter pilot and a few of his fellow pilots published the Pilots’ Letter in which they stated:
We, veteran pilots and active pilots together, who served and still serve the State of Israel during long weeks each year, object to perform illegal and immoral orders of attacks that the State of Israel performs in the territories.
Survivors count losses in Rafah: BBC
Hani Bakear has probably endured the longest war of anyone in Gaza. His house is directly opposite the Egyptian border overlooking the tunnels. For three weeks the land beneath his house has been bombed repeatedly. And yet Mr Bakear has refused to leave. With his 10 children he has sat it out within his crumbling apartment block, as shrapnel rained down around him, some of it coming through the wall. “I have nowhere else to go,” said Mr Bakear. “Why should I leave my home. The Israelis have tried everything to force us out. But the will of the Palestinian people is unshakeable.” The Israelis estimate there were 300 tunnels running beneath the wall. They have thrown everything at them. Today the landscape is pitted and scarred. The explosions were thunderous – goodness knows what it must have been like sitting through it in Mr Bakear’s tiny apartment.
How the world can stop Israeli crimes: Press TV
The following is an exclusive Press TV interview with Tony Benn — British socialist, former Labour MP and Cabinet Minister — on the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip:
Press TV: Tony Benn, you just gave a speech a few minute ago. Could you summarize what you said, and what your message is to Israel?
Benn: What is happening in Gaza is a crime against humanity. It is a moral issue and we are all morally responsible now, wherever we live, to help the people of Gaza.
Ceasefire may not end Gaza war: BBC
Hamas has said it will fight on until Israeli forces satisfy their conditions for a ceasefire. Reuters quoted Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum as saying: “A unilateral ceasefire does not mean ending the aggression and ending the siege… These constitute acts of war, so this won’t mean an end to resistance.” Israel’s assessment is that Hamas is in a lose-lose position. It believes that if Hamas accepts a ceasefire, it will show that it is beaten. And if it does not stop shooting when Israel does, then the Israeli army will go back on to the offensive. If that happens Israel believes it will have increased international legitimacy because it has declared that it is ready to stop fighting. Hamas has repeated its conditions for a ceasefire. It wants a withdrawal of Israeli forces within a week, and the opening of Gaza’s crossings to the outside world. Israel says Hamas has to take it or leave it. The question now is whether Hamas decides to lick its wounds and regroup – or whether it gambles on dragging Israel into a war of attrition.
Hamas announces cease-fire in Gaza, gives IOF week to leave: Ha’aretz
Hamas announced an immediate ceasefire by its militants and allied groups in Gaza on Sunday, giving Israel a week to pull out its troops from the coastal territory. The move came after Israel announced a unilateral cease-fire late Saturday, ending its offensive against the Palestinian Islamist group in Gaza.
Hamas gives Israel one-week ultimatum: Press TV
Israeli tanks retreat to the outskirts of Gaza City as the IDF began observing a unilateral ceasefire in the strip on Sunday.
Hamas has announced an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, giving Israel one week to completely withdraw its forces from the area. The Sunday announcement was made by the faction’s senior official Ayman Taha, who is currently in Cairo for diplomatic talks.
Israel: No timetable for IDF Gaza exit until militants halt attacks: Ha’aretz
Shortly after it announced a unilateral cease-fire in Gaza, Israel said on Sunday it will not consider a timetable for withdrawing all of its forces from the Gaza Strip until Hamas and other militant groups halt their attacks.
“We can’t talk about a timetable for withdrawal until we know the ceasefire is holding,” said Mark Regev, spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, rebuffing United Nations calls for setting a timetable.
The war as warm-up act for Obama, By Gershom Gorenberg: Ha’aretz
The diplomatic timing for the war looked lovely. The U.S. president who loved military action was still in power, though fading into the shadows. The new president, dynamic and popular, hadn’t yet entered office. There was no one to interfere, to pressure us to stop. We don’t know if the Olmert-Livni-Barak triumvirate deliberately picked that window of opportunity. If so, it already looks like another of the war’s mistakes – perhaps the only welcome miscalculation. For instead of preventing American involvement, their decision to go to war on the eve of Barack Obama’s inauguration may well force him to intervene in the Israeli-Palestinian arena and push for a diplomatic solution.
physicians for human rights Jan 16
Report on the Protest, Solidarity and Aid Convoy to the Residents of Gaza
This morning, over 300 members and supporters of Physicians for Human Rights-Israel (PHR-Israel), Jews and Arabs, set out to accompany an emergency dispatch of medical supplies to the Gaza Strip, as a sign of solidarity and protest at the current military attack staged by the Israeli government in the Gaza Strip.
PHR-Israel believes that not only for Palestinian civilians but also for Israeli civilians, and especially those living under the threat of rocket attacks in the south of Israel, the only path to safety and protection is an immediate ceasefire and a political solution to end the occupation and the violence.
Anti-Israel emotions run high in Britain: Press TV
London is beginning to witness major anti-Israel demonstrations with Britons coming to realize the role the UK plays in supporting Israel.
Several hundred pro-Palestinians protesters, including a group of Jews, voiced their concern at London’s Trafalgar Square, where several pro-Palestinian protests have been staged since Israel renewed attacks on Gaza in December.
Former Labor cabinet minister Tony Benn, among the speakers addressing the crowds, pointed out the powerful impact the demonstrations will have because they are reported all over the world.
British Jews join the protest to express anger at the Zionist genocide against the Gazans.
“Palestine must be recognized and I believe that would happen. The Israelis, no matter how many weapons they have, are going to lose this war,” Benn told Press TV. “And I think the greatest enemy of the Jewish people is the Israeli government itself.”
Gideon Levy / An open response to A.B. Yehoshua: Ha’aretz
Thank you for your frank letter and kind words. You wrote it was written from a “position of respect,” and I, too, deeply respect your wonderful literary works. But, unfortunately, I have a lot less respect for your current political position. It is as if the mighty, including you, have succumbed to a great and terrible conflagration that has consumed any remnant of a moral backbone.
You, too, esteemed author, have fallen prey to the wretched wave that has inundated, stupefied, blinded and brainwashed us. You’re actually justifying the most brutal war Israel has ever fought and in so doing are complacent in the fraud that the “occupation of Gaza is over” and justifying mass killings by evoking the alibi that Hamas “deliberately mingles between its fighters and the civilian population.” You are judging a helpless people denied a government and army – which includes a fundamentalist movement using improper means to fight for a just cause, namely the end of the occupation – in the same way you judge a regional power, which considers itself humanitarian and democratic but which has shown itself to be a brutal and cruel conqueror. As an Israeli, I cannot admonish their leaders while our hands are covered in blood, nor do I want to judge Israel and the Palestinians the same way you have.
And no, I do not know “very well,” as you wrote, that we don’t mean to kill children. When one employs tanks, artillery and planes in such a densely populated place one cannot avoid killing children. I understand that Israeli propaganda has cleared your conscience, but it has not cleared mine or that of most of the world. Outcomes, not intentions, are what count – and those have been horrendous. “If you were truly concerned about the death of our children and theirs,” you wrote, “you would understand the present war.” Even in the worst of your literary passages, and there have been few of those, you could not conjure up a more crooked moral argument: that the criminal killing of children is done out of concern for their fates. “There he goes again, writing about children,” you must have told yourself this weekend when I again wrote about the killing of children. Yes, it must be written. It must be shouted out. It is done for both our sakes.
Gideon Levy rebuke to the war-crimes supporter, A B Yehoshua, who has writtena despicable attack on Gideon Levy’s moral and political stand. Read the whole response on the link above.
Yehoshua’s immoral position was also attacked in a Hebrew Poem, by author Yizhak Laor:
הַסּוֹפֵר א. ב. יְהוֹשֻׁעַ לֹא שָׁמַע אַף פַּעַם
עַל שְׁלֹושׁ הַיְּלָדוֹת שֶׁל ד”ר עִיזְאַדִין
אַבּוּלְעֵיש, מִמַּחֲנֶה הַפְּלִיטִים גִ’בַּלְיָה בְּעַזָּה
וְגַם שְׁלֹושׁ הַיְּלָדוֹת שֶׁל ד”ר עִיזְאַדִין אַבּוּלְעֵיש
לֹא שָׁמְעוּ עַל א. ב. יְהוֹשֻׁעַ, וּכְבָר לֹא יִשְׁמְעוּ.
הָיִיתִי רוֹצֶה לְהַבְטִיחַ לד”ר אַבּוּלְעֵיש שֶׁהַפוּרְיוֹת
יִרְדְּפוּ את א. ב. יְהוֹשֻׁעַ כָּל חַיָּיו, אֲבָל הַפוּרְיוֹת
כַּיָּדוּעַ בָּאוֹת מִבִּפְנִים ולא. ב. יְהוֹשֻׁעַ אֵין פְּנִים
הוּא כְּמוֹ הַמְּדִינָה שֶׁלָּנוּ, עוֹפֶרֶת יְצוּקָה
This is a poem about the three daughters of the Gaza doctor, Ezadeen Abu Al Aish, who were killed by the IOF in an attack of the family home in Jebalyia refugee Camp. Dr. Ezadeen Abu Al Aish Has worked for years in Israeli hospitals, speaks fluent Hebrew, and during this campaign has reported live from Gaza hospitals on the health crisis. It is striking that one of the last acts of this senseless and criminal war, is the assassination of him and his family.
The writer A B Yehoshua never heard
About the three dauthers of Dr. Ezadeen
Abu-Al Aish, from Jebalyia refugee Camp
And the the three daughters of Dr. Ezadeen
Abu-Al Aish did not hear of Yehushua, and
now will never hear. (I wished to promise to
Dr. Abu-Al Aish the the Furies will haunt A B
Yehoshua for life, but the Furies are internal
and AB Yehoshua is hollow, like our state,
Cast Lead.)
Campaigners Decommission Arms Factory in solidarity with Gaza: Indymedia UK
The Smash EDO campaign has been contacted by a group of campaigners who forced entry into the ITT/EDO MBM arms factory early this morning, Saturday 17th January. They destroyed equipment inside the factory that is used to make the weapons used in Israel’s wholesale slaughter of civilians in Gaza.
Israel declares ceasefire in Gaza: BBC
Israel is to halt its three-week military offensive against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said. He said Israel had achieved its aims and the unilateral ceasefire would start at 0200 (2400 GMT). But he said troops would remain in Gaza for now. A Hamas spokesman said it would not accept one Israeli soldier in Gaza. Nearly 1,200 Palestinians have been killed since the violence began on 27 December. Thirteen Israelis have died. Minutes before Mr Olmert was due to speak, a rocket was fired from Gaza, a BBC producer in Gaza said.
In this report Olmert says that ‘Israel’s goal were achieved” Those must have been to destroy Gaza and kill as many as possible, which was clearly successful… in breaking down the spirit of Gaza and its resistance fighters, they were less successful, of course. But now they start doing the debriefing, and planning the next invasion, without a doubt. We, who oppose Zionism and its murderous excesses, must start the new phase of the struggle against them, so as to make syure the next invasion never comes: Boycott, divestment, sanction, cutting off relations with Israel, full arms embargo, an end to the occupation NOW! Israel’s leaders who ordered this invasion, and the army officers who have carried it out, should be tried for the war crimes they committed! Israel should pay full reparations to all the citizens of Lebanon and Palestine which they have harmed. No blockade of Gaza will now be possible, I reckon. We should put ALL the pressures on Israel and its citizens – 96% of them supported the barbarities to the very end, and should share in the fate of the state which they support.
Peace ‘a mirage’ for Palestinians: BBC
The muqata – the Palestinian president’s compound in Ramallah – is a rather bleak expanse of tarmac at the best of times.
On the day that President George W Bush descended, almost exactly a year ago, the muqata was blanketed in the filthiest weather. George Bush’s sense of optimism, though, was radiant.
“In order for there to be lasting peace, President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert have to come together and make tough choices,” Mr Bush told a press conference inside the muqata, speaking of the Palestinian and Israeli leaders.
Peace? Not again, the Peace process and all that junk? Sounds like the villains of the piece, USA and UK, are immediately trying to drive history backwards, into the last four decades of ‘peace talks’. We will not allow this madness and subterfuge. It was the ‘peace making process’ (dubbed by Moshe Dayan as the “piss-making process”) has been the lie under which all the settlement activity could continue undeterred, and more and more of Palestine closed to its people, and more and more of them killed; under this illusion, the Apartheid Wall was built. So please, no more nonsense. What we should now ask for is simple justice! Peace will only be possible with the end of Zionism, with a de-Zionized Israel, and not a moment before; Zionism will continue to kill, maim, steel, and expropriate, to oppress and suppress. Justice means total withdrawal to 1967, full reparations to ALL the Palestinian and Lebanese who were harmed by Israel’s illegal actions over the years, and the repeal of Israel’s racist constitutional legal system. Then we may see some peace, not before.
How is this to be achieved? We must follow the South African model of forcing the internation agenda by non-violent direct action, by civic protest, bya large international movement, using the anger and deeper understanding now being established in many countries.
Eyewitness: BBC reporter in Rafah: BBC
The BBC’s Christian Fraser is the first British journalist to enter Gaza independently since the Israeli offensive began. Israel is continuing to deny foreign journalists unsupervised access to the Strip. He sent this report from Rafah, southern Gaza, which he entered from Egypt. Nineteen days we had waited to cross into Rafah.
For three weeks we had watched the injured come through the crossing and thunderous explosions on the other side. At last we were being allowed in to report it – independently. Rafah has been pounded through this conflict. The Israelis are targeting smuggling tunnels that extend beneath the perimeter wall. Around 40,000 people who lived close to it are now homeless.
Five thousand of them are sheltering in three UN schools, so many of them are children.
Gaza hospital comes under fire: BBC
Dr Waleed Abu Ramadan sighs down the phone.
The medical director of al-Quds hospital has not wept since he helped evacuate several hundred people from the blazing Palestinian Red Crescent (PRC) compound on Thursday night, but he says: “My heart is crying.”
He says he is standing next to the smouldering remains of a pharmacy filled with bandages, medicines and other medical supplies, describing the chaos as intensive care patients and premature babies were wheeled onto the street.
The compound was hit twice during heavy fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas militants in the Tel al-Hawa district in the west of Gaza City.
In the first incident, in the morning, the administrative building next to the hospital was hit and burst into flames. Patients were evacuated “in panic” to the ground floor, the PRC said.
At about 2200 (2000 GMT), a second building housing offices and a lecture theatre was hit. Fire spread to the roof of the hospital itself, the PRC said.
In no time at all we will hear that no, they did not shell the hospital, but yes, they did, but no they didn’t… it is the Vicky Pollard act all over again. Every denial is then proved to be another lie.
UN accuses Israel over phosphorus: BBC
The head of the UN aid agency in Gaza has accused the Israeli military of firing what was believed to be white phosphorus shells at its compound. John Ging told the BBC that in spite of discussions with the Israeli liaison, “three rounds that emitted phosphorus” hit a corner of the Gaza City facility. Israel’s military said all weapons it used complied with international law.
Phosphorus shells are legal to use as a battlefield obscurant, but are banned from use where civilians may be harmed.
Human Rights Watch says it has observed “dozens and dozens” of white phosphorus shells being fired by Israel at the Gaza Strip – a heavily populated civilian area where its use is prohibited.
Gaza City voices: Pressure eases: BBC
Palestinians across Gaza City describe a welcome easing in conditions after intense fighting between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants on Thursday.
ABIR, in Tel al-Hawa district
The Israeli tanks have gone, but the streets are destroyed.
I look out of my window and I see big holes in the road and we can still see and smell the smoke rising.
The electricity cables are pulled down. The streets are empty because so many people left. A few are coming back very cautiously to collect some things, but they leave straightaway.
I can see the Quds hospital from my window. We were going to take shelter there yesterday, but we changed our minds at the last minute because we were scared to go out.
Gaza Massacre – Jan. 16, 2009: YouTube – imaginative use of the images from Gaza
Brown in UK naval offer for Gaza: BBC
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has offered British naval resources to help monitor events in the Gaza conflict and stop weapons being smuggled in. He wants to help ensure protection and monitoring of the crossings into Gaza. Mr Brown said: “We will do everything we can to prevent the arms trading at the root of the problems.”
Israeli is to unilaterally halt offensive military activities in the Gaza Strip three weeks after operations began, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said. Mr Olmert’s announcement came in a televised address following a late-night cabinet meeting. He said Israel’s operation in Gaza had fully achieved its aims, with Hamas badly damaged militarily and in terms of infrastructure.
How noble of our prime minister to offer this! But as usual, he got it a little wrong… As most the arms are now arriving from the USA and the UK, and are not going to Gaza, but to Tel Aviv, then maybe he could offer to send the Royal Navy to stop the arms sent by by his Bush’s government to Israel? That task, at least, can be successful, and might indeed stop the next round before it started? Think about it, Gordon!
The plot against Gaza: Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada
Israel has justified its assault on Gaza as entirely defensive, intended only to stop Hamas firing rockets on Israel’s southern communities. Although that line has been repeated unwaveringly by officials since Israel launched its attack on 27 December, it bears no basis to reality. Rather, this is a war against the Palestinians of Gaza, and less directly those in the West Bank, designed primarily to crush their political rights and their hopes of statehood.
The most glaring evidence contradicting the Israeli casus belli is the six-month ceasefire between Hamas and Israel that preceded the invasion. True, Hamas began firing its rockets as soon as the truce came to an end on 19 December, but Israel had offered plenty of provocation. Not least it broke the ceasefire by staging a raid into Gaza on 4 November that killed six Hamas members. Even more significantly, it maintained and tightened a blockade during the ceasefire period that was starving Gaza’s 1.5 million inhabitants of food, medicine and fuel. Hamas had expected the blockade lifted in return for an end to the rockets.
Time for Israel to be put on trial: Elna Sondergaard, The Electronic Intifada
The brutal and indiscriminate Israeli attacks on the Palestinian population in Gaza during the last weeks have entailed numerous violations of basic norms of international law, such as the principles of proportionality and distinction (between civilians and combatants; and between civilian and military targets). Military acts such as intentionally targeting schools and other civilian facilities are considered violations of international humanitarian law in relation to which the state of Israel bears responsibility — but they also constitute serious crimes under international law (e.g., war crimes and eventually crimes against humanity) in relation to which individuals should stand trial.
The international community agreed to this principle of individual responsibility for international crimes in the wake of the Second World War; genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes were considered totally unacceptable and individuals committing such crimes should be held accountable. The rational behind the Nuremberg Tribunal in 1945 was clear: without a trial, justice and peace would never prevail. This idea of individual accountability has subsequently been implemented in the case law of the ad-hoc tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, and the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague will develop it further in the future.
UN school attacked; civilians left to bleed to death: Press release, Al Mezan
Al Mezan Center’s monitoring also indicates that the IOF has continued to restrict ambulances’ access to injured people, despite the intervention of the International Committee of the Red Cross, causing them to bleed to death. Field information shows that the IOF has killed at least 1,191 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since the start of its Operation Cast Lead on 27 December 2008. This includes at least 272 children and 85 women. The number of casualties is expected to be higher, since Al Mezan only reports on the cases which it has been able to verify. Moreover, 3,953 people have been injured, including at least 849 children and 481 women.
“Twenty years of a life erased”: Eva Bartlett writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine
When I’d met the extended Abed Rabu family, before the ground invasion began, they had just had their house bombed by an F-16. Their area has been occupied by Israeli tanks and soldiers since the ground invasion began. Medical workers cannot reach the injured there, and those who have managed to escape testify to imprisonment in their houses, abuse, point-blank shooting (to death), and a number of dead not yet known. It’s an area Israel views as strategic, lying just hundreds of meters from the eastern border to Israel, a key entry point for invading troops. Past invasions have meant entire families and neighbors being locked into a room of a house for a day or days. Supposition among journalists and those with two cents here is that Israel’s intense bombardment of, and destruction of houses in, the area is to both decimate any resistance and to create an alternate “road” for tanks and troops to roll in on, meaning houses in their path are leveled to the ground.
No honeymoons in Gaza: Eva Bartlett writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine
Wael Selmi displayed a surprising kindness and welcome — you are welcome any time — given that his life’s work had just been leveled by the invading Israeli army. Even more surprising, given that the brothers’ furniture factory in northern Gaza was destroyed by the Israeli army four years ago, causing $300,000 in damage and losses. They’d had it just two years at the time. Along with that ruined factory, the family owns agricultural land which they cannot access near the Erez crossing.
At 4am on 13 January, two Israeli F-16 warplane missiles destroyed the sea-side Jazeera hotel and the next door Shihab hotel, leaving the Jazeera, in particular, skeletal, with entrails of concrete and wiring dangling from ceiling to floor, and with other random survivors testifying what had been: matching, semi-intact chairs clustered in a corner, marbled stairs and tiled walls. One of the 14 employees, while describing the building beneath the wreckage, detailed the losses: $28,000 for the 160 kilowatt generator, $25,000 for the electricity regulator, and the other losses amounting to $1.3 million in damage, with another $600,000 in unpaid debts.
Israel calls a halt to its assault on Gaza: The Guardian online
• Hamas ‘to fight on’ after ceasefire
• Olmert says war aims ‘fully attained’
Israel called a halt to its bombardment of Gaza tonight after winning American and European pledges of support to shut down the Hamas weapons supply pipeline. The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, effectively declared Hamas was broken, saying that its power is diminishing. “The conditions have been created that our aims, as declared, were attained fully, and beyond,” he said in a televised address. “The campaign has proven Israel’s power and strengthened its deterrence.”
Trauma and terror in Gaza: Sami Abdel-Shafi: The Guardian
We who live in the shadow of death under the Israeli onslaught veer hour by hour from defiance to despair
I never imagined I would, but now I know what it feels like to be stalked by death. Last week, I had just arrived for an engagement at a media building in Gaza City only to find the studio crew huddled in fear and peering out of the window. An Israeli rocket had just landed, killing four pedestrians close to where the car that drove me had turned just minutes prior. On Thursday night, media offices in that same building were rocketed by Israel’s air force.
Later the same evening, I called on relatives who live about 100m from our house. On my way back, one of Israel’s angry jets, which have covered Gaza’s skies for more than 20 days now, seemed to release a bomb. Suddenly panicking, I let go of my torch and, unable to see anything in the dark, crouched on the sidewalk – even though I knew that would be no protection from an F-16’s bomb if it landed nearby. I was lucky; the bomb never came – it was just my anxiety.
Finkelstein Gaza Interview on Israel breaking the ceasefire with Hamas
Military components factory ransacked in Gaza protest: The Guardian online
Nine people held after break-in at plant near Brighton allegedly making parts for Isareli missiles
Nine people are being questioned by police following extensive damage at an arms factory where protesters claim military components are being made for Israeli warplanes bombing Gaza.
The group, which calls itself Smash EDO, entered the EDO MBM Technology plant in Moulsecoomb, Brighton, in the early hours of this morning. During the incident computers and furniture were hurled from the windows of the Sussex factory. Police described the damaged as “substantial”.
Demonstrators said they were “decommissioning” the site in protest against the killings of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military. They said equipment made at the plant was being used in Gaza by the Israeli air force.
Israel to begin unilateral Gaza cease-fire at 2 A.M.: Ha’aretz
Prime Minster Ehud Olmert on Saturday night announced that Israel’s security cabinet has voted in favor of a unilateral cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, which will come into effect at 2 A.M.
The announcement comes after three weeks of fighting in the coastal strip, as Israel launched a massive military offensive aimed at halting years of daily rocket fire on its southern communities. Palestinian sources say that more than 1,100 Gazans have been killed since the offensive began on December 27. Three Israeli civilians and 10 Israel Defense Forces have been killed during that period.
ANALYSIS / Israel declares victory in Gaza, but at what cost?: Ha’aretz
Trying to hide a smile and a sense of self-satisfaction Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faced the cameras at the Defense Ministry and declared to the Israeli public, “We won.” The Israel Defense Forces objectives for its operation in the Gaza Strip were “obtained in full.” Hamas was “surprised and badly beaten,” the government “made decisions responsibly and wisely,” the IDF’s performance was excellent and the southern home front “displayed resilience.”
Olmert would have loved to have been able to say the same thing back in 2006, at the end of the Second Lebanon War. But then he had to confront a disappointed and outraged public calling for an inquiry into the government’s handling of the war. The Gaza operation was undoubtedly intended to redeem Olmert, and will be used as a springboard for a comeback – if he avoids conviction on any of the charges pending against him.
An almost sane analysis, of course totally skewed from the Israeli perspective of the IOF, but ending with the clear stateement below:
“But Hamas’ gains cannot be ignored: It has won international legitimacy and sympathy, and its forces still control the Gaza Strip.”
News from Gaza 16 Jan 2009: Al Jazeera
Hamas: Israel cease-fire declaration not enough, we`ll continue resistance: Ha’aretz
Hamas said late Saturday that it reserves the right to continue resisting Israel “with all means” if Jerusalem does not follow up its ceasefire with a withdrawal from Gaza and lifting the blockade on the territory, a Hamas official said on Saturday.
“The Israeli declaration is not enough,” Ali Barakeh said in the Syrian capital.
Sarkozy, Merkel, and Brown to attend Gaza summit in Egypt: Ha’aretz
French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s office said he and Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak will co-chair an international summit in Cairo to discuss the Gaza crisis.
Sarkozy will lead Sunday’s meeting in the Red Sea resort Sharm al-Sheikh along with Mubarak.
Journalist calls Livni ‘terrorist’ during press conference on Gaza operation: Ha’aretz
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni had a testy press conference Friday in Washington, D.C., moments after she signed an agreement with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meant to combat arms smuggling to Gaza.
From the starting moments of the press conference, Livni was beset by a less-than friendly barrage of questions, with a number of journalists asserting that Israel’s military operations in Gaza will only make Middle East peace more distant. Some journalists went so far as to compare the Israeli government to that of dictator Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe, due to Israel’s decision to bar journalists from Gaza. One of the more tense moments came when one journalist began to quote at length a Human Rights report on the situation in Gaza, before asking Livni to comment on “the murder of innocent civilians in the Strip.”
When the man was asked to finish his question, he yelled out that Livni had been speaking for an hour and that the journalists weren’t being allowed to ask questions. He then asked since when the U.S. has been hosting “terrorists”.
See Mark Regev Challenged by Christiane Amanpour
See Livni being racked by Christiane Amanpour, Jan 4, 2009