More than 1400 Palestinians dead, over 436 children,
109 women, and more than 5,500 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, 17,000 of them children, and 212,000 wounded.
Ban ‘appalled’ by Gaza’s damage: BBC
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he is appalled by Israeli attacks on a UN compound in Gaza after seeing the destruction for himself. Mr Ban said that those responsible should be held accountable and demanded a “full investigation” through proper judiciary systems. He was speaking in front of the smouldering remains of the UN food warehouse destroyed by Israeli shells. He said he would do all he could to help the population of Gaza. Mr Ban is the first international leader to visit Gaza for several years, entering through the Israeli-controlled Erez crossing and driving through the bomb-damaged northern suburbs to Gaza City. He later visited the southern Israeli town of Sderot, which has been one of the main targets of Palestinian rocket attacks in recent years. He described the rockets as indiscriminate weapons and said the attacks by Hamas are violations of basic humanitarian law. However, he also called on Israel to end its blockade of Gaza, saying the embargo only strengthens Hamas by fuelling desperation in the impoverished enclave.
Odd, this! He seems not to have enjoyed his visit to Gaza that much.
Gaza doctor’s loss grips Israelis: BBC
I first met Dr Izeldeen Abuelaish eight years ago when I made a radio documentary about his extraordinary life and work. A Palestinian obstetrician who specialises in treating infertility, he lives in the Jabaliya camp in the Gaza Strip, but used to work part-time in Israel helping Jewish women to have babies. He also had a clinic in Gaza, taught medical school students there and arranged for seriously ill Palestinian patients to be treated in Israel. He put up with the tedious and sometimes humiliating border checks with dignity and patience. He stayed calm when one of his own Palestinian medical students told him she was “very, very angry” that he was helping Israelis to have children. “What if these babies grow up to become soldiers who kill our people?” asked the young woman. Now this is the BBC for you – they report the whole thing, leaving out the press conference the day after, during which, sitting in wheel chair in the hospital and asking the Israelis for peace, he was set upon by a group of crazed Israelis who shouted and tried to harm him, led by a ‘mother of a paratrooper’ who behaves like one herself. Thank you, auntie BBC, for doing all you can for Israel, we really appreciate your Zionist bias! Not to worry, go to my blog from yesterday, where you can see two clips with Dr Izeldeen Abuelaish being attacked!
Gazans confront shattered lives: BBC
All day, thousands of Gazans have been rushing back to their neighbourhoods to see what is left after Israel’s campaign of bombing and shelling. Gaping holes and fire-blackened cars litter the streets in the areas hit hardest by the fighting. I have spoken to some people who say they have not even been able to find their way round their bomb-damaged neighbourhoods, never mind find the remains of their homes. Many simply turned round and returned to the UN-run schools they fled to amid the fighting. But for some Gazans even attempting to return home is virtually unimaginable. Amira al-Girim, 15, lies in a hospital bed with her leg in traction.
UN chief demands investigation into Israeli attack on Gaza headquarters: The Guardian
• Ban Ki-Moon visibly angry at sight of burned-out buildings
• Palestinians estimate property damage at £1.3bn The secretary general of the United Nations has called for a full investigation into Israel’s shelling of three of its buildings in the Gaza Strip during its three-week long assault against Hamas. A visibly furious Ban Ki-moon condemned as “outrageous, shocking and alarming” the destruction he had seen while touring Gaza, and described as “excessive use” of force the violence wrought by both Israel and Hamas rockets. “These are heartbreaking scenes I have seen and I am deeply grieved by what I have seen today,” he said, standing against a backdrop of still-smoking food aid in a UN warehouse destroyed by Israeli gunfire last Thursday. Demanding a proper judicial inquiry and guarantees that UN buildings would not be attacked again, Ban said: “I am just appalled. I am not able to describe how I am feeling, having seen this site of the bombing of the United Nations compound. This was an outrageous and totally unacceptable attack against the United Nations.” Prepare your wallets, friends. Who will pay for the rebuilding of Gaza? Well, anyone but those who caused it, obviously! Don’t you think it makes sense? And will the war criminals face justice? Don’t make me laugh, please. Ban Ki-Moon better shut up, or next time they will get him Phosphorous treatment!
Olmert: U.S.-Israeli relations will grow even stronger under Obama: Ha’aretz
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday congratulated U.S. President Barack Obama upon his inauguration, saying he expects Israeli-American relations to become even stronger.
“We wish the incoming President success in his office and are certain that we will be full partners in advancing peace and stability in the Middle East,” Olmert said in a statement.
Now this is excellent new! Obviously next time they can kill many more. I did not even realise that those relations could be even stronger… I thought they were as strong as thieves could be thick! You live and learn…
Israel’s “Dahiya Doctrine” comes to Gaza: Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada
In the last days before Israel imposed a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza to avoid embarrassing the incoming Obama administration, it upped its assault, driving troops deeper into Gaza City, intensifying its artillery bombardment and creating thousands more displaced people.
Israel’s military strategy in Gaza, even in what its officials were calling the “final act,” followed a blueprint laid down during the Lebanon war more than two years ago.
Then, Israel destroyed much of Lebanon’s infrastructure in a month of intensive air strikes. Even in the war’s last few hours, as a ceasefire was being finalized, Israel fired more than a million cluster bombs over south Lebanon, apparently in the hope that the area could be made as uninhabitable as possible.
Similarly, Israel’s destruction of Gaza continued with unrelenting vigor to the very last moment, even though according to reports in the Israeli media the air force exhausted what it called its “bank of Hamas targets” in the first few days of fighting.
The military sidestepped the problem by widening its definition of Hamas-affiliated buildings. Or as one senior official explained: “There are many aspects of Hamas, and we are trying to hit the whole spectrum because everything is connected and everything supports terrorism against Israel.”
Ban Ki-moon ‘appalled’ by Gaza destruction: The Independent
UN chief Ban Ki-moon says Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel are appalling and unacceptable.
During a trip to the rocket-scarred Israeli town of Sderot, Ban said the projectiles are indiscriminate weapons, and Hamas attacks are violations of basic humanitarian law. However, he also urged Israel to end its crippling blockade of Gaza. He says the embargo will only strengthen Hamas by fueling desperation in impoverished Gaza.
Ban was touring Israel and Gaza on Tuesday in the wake of a deadly Israeli offensive in Gaza. Israel launched the operation to end years of rocket fire on Sderot and other southern towns.
The UN chief inspected the devastation wrought by Israel’s onslaught in Gaza, leading a moment of silence at the smoldering UN headquarters, as the territory’s militant Hamas rulers, triumphant at having survived, held victory rallies amid the ruins.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, appearing stern and saddened at a ceremony at the burned out UN headquarters in Gaza, demanded an Israeli investigation into strikes on United Nations facilities. Ban asked the crowd to observe a moment of silence for victims of the offensive, who included nearly 40 Palestinians who had sought refuge at a UN school shelled by Israel.
Robert Fisk: Posturing and laughter as victims rot: The Independent
Mahmoud Abbas stepped further into humiliation by saying the only option for Arabs is to make peace with Israel
The front page of the Beirut daily As-Safir said it all yesterday. Across the top was a terrible photograph of the bloated body of a Palestinian man newly discovered in the ruins of his home while two male members of his family shrieked and roared their grief. Below, at half the size, was a photograph from Israel of Western leaders joking with Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister. Olmert was roaring with laughter. Silvio Berlusconi, arms on the back of Olmert’s shoulders, was also joshing and roaring – with laughter, not grief – and on Olmert’s right was Nicolas Sarkozy of France wearing his stupidest of smiles. Only Chancellor Merkel appeared to understand the moral collapse. No smiles from Germany.
Europe laughs while Palestinians mourn their dead. No wonder that in the streets of Beirut, shops were doing a flourishing trade in Palestinian scarves and flags. Even some of Palestine’s most serious enemies in Lebanon wore the Palestinian keffiyeh in solidarity with the people of Gaza. Over and over again, Al-Jazeera television strapped headlines on to their news reports of Palestinians carrying the decomposing corpses of their dead: “More than 1,300 dead in Gaza, 400 of them women and children – Israeli dead in the war 13, three of them civilians.” That, too, said it all.
A child full of light will never see again: Electronic intifada
Sameh A. Habeeb writing from the occupied Gaza Strip, Live from Palestine
As a Gazan journalist who is devastated by the holocaust the Israel army is perpetrating against us, I find myself at loss. The list of horrendous crimes committed by the Israeli army against Palestinians is endless and the crimes are countless.
Should I write about the 45 evacuees who were massacred in their refuge at the United Nations-administered al-Fakhoura school? Should I write about the most horrifying crime when Red Cross personnel found four starving children who had spent four days with the dead bodies of their mothers and other relatives in the ruins of a house in the al-Zeitoun neighborhood?
Should I talk about the mass killing of the al-Dayaa family when 15 family members were killed when a “smart” bomb gently hit their five-story building?
What about the sadistic crime when the father of the al-Samuni family was executed before his wife and children? Or the carnage committed against the extended al-Samuni family when 29 members of the clan were concentrated in one house which was bombed and collapsed on top of them, killing them all?
Olmert: Hamas responsible for damage IDF op caused in Gaza: Ha’aretz
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday said that Hamas was fully responsible for the damage caused during Israel’s 22-day offensive in Gaza and must not be allowed to lead reconstruction efforts.
“Hamas bears full responsibility for the destruction in the Gaza Strip and the harm to innocents, therefore, Hamas must not be allowed to lead the reconstruction process in the Strip and receive any kind of legitimacy from this,” Olmert told visiting Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini. During a meeting between the pair, the prime minister explained Israel’s position on the reconstruction process in Gaza. He said that international organizations need to take charge of it, in cooperation with the United Nations, Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority.
Now there is a good idea – Hamas should be made to pay for its crime in bombing destroying Gaza, and also pay Israel for its great military expense in protecting the citizens of Gaza. I think this will run and run!