(28 Dec) Israeli airstrikes continued on Gaza throughout Saturday night and into Sunday afternoon. The death toll rises with each strike, and as more bodies are pulled out of Saturday's rubble. A timeline of the latest is: 2:30 Israeli airstrikes over Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza 1:45 Israeli airstrike hits near school in Az-Zaitoun neighborhood in Gaza City 12:00 Israeli air forces launched a fresh raid against the governmental compound known as "As-Saraya" killing one child and injuring several others....
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Man, woman dead after house shelled in Gaza Strip
Gaza - Ma'an - Israel's air force shelled a house in the Az-Zeitoun area of the Gaza Strip, killing two Palestinians late on Sunday. The latest attack brought the death toll of Israel's ongoing campaign in the Gaza Strip to 292. The shelling apparently targeted a Palestinian security post and a residential building in the Tal Al-Hawa neighborhood in the south of Gaza City. A car was also targeted at An-Nuseirat Refugee Camp early on Sunday evening. [end]
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Tunnel airstrike kills two as hundreds race for Egypt's border
Gaza - Ma'an - Shells hit Gaza tunnels Sunday evening killing two, injuring 22 and prompting hundreds to race for the new gaps in Egypt's border wall. Refugees were met with Egyptian security who used force to repel crowds. The airstrikes damaged the border wall between Egypt and Gaza and at least 40 tunnels, which bring food and fuel into the coastal area. Much of the fuel caught fire during the attacks and large fires broke out along the border.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Israeli jets pound Gaza tunnels
Israeli aircraft have bombed the length of the Gaza-Egypt border, taking out tunnels used to smuggle in vital goods to the besieged strip. The bombing raid started at dusk on Sunday on the second day of an operation which has so far killed more than 292 Palestinians and wounded more than 600.
http://english.aljazeera.net/
Haitham Sabbah: Photos of the day
(28 Dec) Pictures from Gaza that you for sure won't see in the Western press
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/
also this Arabic site:
http://www.al-akhbar.com/ar/
Guardian pictures 27 Dec:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Huffington Post Slide Show
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Cartoon: Birth Pangs of a New Middle East
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_
VIDEO: Destruction continues in Gaza
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/
ISM: Video of the devastation in Gaza
(27 Dec) These images were filmed shortly after one of the bombings in the southern Gaza town of Rafah. They show the devastation at the site of a police station in the Hi Alijnina neighbourhood which was hit at approximately 11:30am local time.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/
Gaza's desperate hospitals overwhelmed by casualties
(28 Dec) Two of Gaza's highest-ranking security officials are among the victims of Israeli airstrikes. Medical personnel scramble to treat the wounded in facilities left low on supplies by a blockade -- Gaza's hospitals were already critically low on most supplies because of a long-term blockade by Israel, assisted by Egypt, designed to pressure the militant Hamas organization that seized control of the strip last year. After Saturday's Israeli air attacks, 215 victims arrived at Shifa Hospital within 15 minutes, Khalaf said.
http://www.latimes.com/news/
Free Gaza Movement: Dignity to sail emergency medical supplies to Gaza
(Larnaca, Cyprus) The Free Gaza movement will hold a press conference at 16:30 Monday, December 29 at the port in Larnaca. We are sending in the DIGNITY on an emergency mission of mercy to Gaza loaded with three to four tons of urgently needed medical supplies.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/
PA health minister urges Hamas to allow wounded into Egypt, flies to Cairo to speak with counterpart
(28 Dec) Fathi Abu Moghli left for Cairo Sunday where he will meet with his Egyptian counterpart to coordinate the transfer of hundreds of injured Gazans into Egypt for treatment. Egypt offered to accept Gaza wounded Saturday but medical sources said patients were not stable enough to make the trip and encouraged Egypt to send medical supplies. On Sunday Hamas officials announced that the de facto government would not open the Rafah crossing for wounded Gazans unless the crossing was completely opened. Abu Moghli condemned reports of Hamas fighters firing on vehicles carrying wounded Gazans to the Rafah crossing, in an attempt to bar their passage.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Gazans sit atop northern rooftops challenging Israeli orders to evacuate or face death
(28 Dec) Israeli forces called to Gazan families through loudspeakers demanding that they evacuate their homes before intense Israeli shelling began in the northern Gaza Strip. As the Abu Sultan family in the Jabalia refugee camp prepared their belongings, Israeli fire rained down on their home killing several family members and injuring others. Witnesses of the massacres on Saturday decided to challenge the Israeli order to evacuate and gathered in areas under attack to sit on roofs with families whose homes face imminent destruction. Despite cold weather and Israeli warplanes flying overhead small crowds could be seen on rooftops across the northern Gaza Strip area. Israeli forces gave no warning to the injured and homeless who sought refuge in the Al-Burno Mosque in the Ash-Shifa medical compound, which was bombed without notification overnight.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Israeli Ministry of Defence make threatening phone call to residents of Rafah on the day that Israel kills at least 225 Palestinians
"We received a call at about 9:45pm from the Israeli Ministry of Defence. It said that any house with guns or weapons would be targeted next. They said that this would happen without warning or any announcement" "I hope that its not just our house. We do not have any guns" Contact was lost with Fida before it could be ascertained whether these calls were widespread across Rafah and the rest of Gaza.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/
Israeli troops near Gaza; airstrikes continue
(28 Dec) GAZA CITY – Israeli warplanes pressing one of Israel's deadliest assaults ever on Palestinian militants dropped bombs and missiles on a top security installation and dozens of other targets across Hamas-ruled Gaza on Sunday. Infantry and armored units headed to the Gaza border for a possible ground invasion, as the Israeli Cabinet authorized a callup of thousands of reserve soldiers. Some 280 Palestinians died in the first 24 hours of the campaign against Gaza rocket squads — most of them [?] Hamas police. Unbowed by 250 Israeli airstrikes, militants fired dozens of rockets and mortars at border communities Sunday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/
IDF to mobilize 6,700 reservists for Gaza operation
(28 Dec) The Israel Defense Forces has announced its intention to call up 6,700 reservists to duty, one day after the launch of the largest Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip since it captured the territory in 1967. Defense officials said some reservists had already been mobilized to help in protecting communities on the Gaza border from retaliatory Palestinian rocket salvoes. New reservists would help complete the armed forces' preparations for a possible escalation of the fighting, an official said. Meanwhile, hundreds of Israel Defense Forces infantry and armored corps troops headed for the Gaza Strip border early Sunday in preparation for a possible ground invasion, military officials said.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Who violated the ceasefire? Disinformation, secrecy, and lies: how the Gaza offensive came about
(27 Dec) Long-term preparation, careful gathering of information, secret discussions, operational deception and the misleading of the public - all these stood behind the Israel Defense Forces "Cast Lead" operation against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, which began Saturday morning. The disinformation effort, according to defense officials, took Hamas by surprise and served to significantly increase the number of its casualties in the strike. Sources in the defense establishment said Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for the operation over six months ago, even as Israel was beginning to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. According to the sources, Barak maintained that although the lull would allow Hamas to prepare for a showdown with Israel, the Israeli army needed time to prepare, as well.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Report: Egypt stabbed Hamas in back
Egypt collaborated with Israel by deliberately misleading Hamas and allowing Tel Aviv to deal a blow to the movement, a report claims.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.
Analysis / With Gaza raid, Barak is back in the political ring
(28 Dec) The man who, until yesterday, had to remind the Israeli voter of his existence with self-ridicule on billboards and satirical shows is returning to the political ring with force. In the coming days, weeks maybe, Ehud Barak will stand in the center of the public's attention. For better or worse, he's in his element. The beginning of the raid in Gaza bears the wily and deceptive fingerprint of Barak, the Israel Defense Forces most highly decorated combat soldier. This does not make him the most suitable candidate for the premiership, but it may deliver him and his party from the humiliating defeat the polls are predicting.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
PA 'ready' to take Gaza if Hamas ousted
"We have enough men in the Gaza Strip who are ready to fill the vacuum," he said. "But of course all this depends on whether Israel manages to get rid of the Hamas regime."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/
'Revolt against Hamas? No way'
As Gazans prepare to bury dead from Israeli attacks, residents display different attitudes towards continuing resistance. Some call for end to rocket attacks, others want more, while some say terror attacks on Tel Aviv, Jerusalem buses preferred. All seem to agree revolt against Hamas out of the question.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
GOC Southern Command: IDF will send Gaza back decades
(28 Dec) In attacking Hamas' regime in the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces will try to "send Gaza decades into the past" in terms of weapon capabilities while achieving "the maximum number of enemy casualties and keeping Israel Defense Forces casualties at a minimum," GOC Southern Command Yoav Galant said. Despite efforts to keep IDF casualties to a minimum, Galant said that once troops are actually sent after the enemy, "what will take precedence is the need to fulfill the mission." He added, "Under no circumstance can we accept a norm that leaves missions unmet." As for Hamas' military presence in Gaza, Galant proposed treating it as a force tantamount to a fortified infantry division with anti-tank capabilities, deployed in defensive formations. The urban setting - Gaza is one of the world's most densely populated areas - "presents complexities and difficulties," he said. This setting dictates that ground forces closely cooperate with the Air Force.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Analysis / IAF strike on Gaza is Israel's version of 'shock and awe'
(27 Dec) By Amos Harel. The events along the southern front which commenced at 11:30 on Saturday morning are the closest thing there is to a war between Israel and Hamas. It is difficult to ascertain (geographically) where and for how long the violence will reach before international intervention forces a halt to the hostilities...Palestinian sources in Gaza report that 40 targets were destroyed in a span of three to five minutes. This was a massive attack much along the lines of what the Americans termed "shock and awe" during their invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Simultaneous, heavy bombardment of a number of targets on which Israel spent months gathering intelligence.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Israeli stocks fall on Gaza air raid, plan to call up reserves
Dec. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Israeli stocks and government bonds fell after the Israeli cabinet agreed to call up army reservists, spurring concern air strikes on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip may be followed by a ground invasion. Oil Refineries Ltd. slid to the lowest since it began trading in February 2007 after Calcalist reported that one of the units of the country's biggest refiner may no longer meet the criteria for its bank loans. Shares in Bank Leumi Le-Israel Ltd. dropped to their lowest in five years.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/
Israel to reprise Lebanon war in Gaza?
(28 Dec) The strategy used by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for an offensive in Lebanon in 2006 could again be deployed against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. But there are big differences in the handling of the military operation in Gaza, which the Israeli air force started pounding on Saturday, and it is not clear how regional stability might benefit, let alone peace talks with Palestinians. For now, Israeli officials sound satisfied with an operation in Gaza that shows few of the tactical mistakes of the 2006 war on Lebanese Hezbollah. Fewer than half of Gaza's many dead are civilians, Israeli border towns were better prepared this time for retaliatory rocket fire and the Olmert government has not promised big victories.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/
Palestinians: 4 killed in IDF attack on mosque
(28 Dec) At least 230 Palestinian killed in first day of 'Operation Cast Lead' in Gaza. Hamas sources report that IDF sorties continue throughout night, say fighter jets strike mosque killing four people -- "Operation Cast Lead" in Gaza has entered its second day as IDF fighter jets struck some 20 targets in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, according to Palestinian sources. Hamas reported that Israeli jets bombarded a mosque in Gaza City and the al-Jazeera television network said that for people were killed in the strike. The offices of Hamas' television station were also hit. Meanwhile, the rocket fire towards Israel continued throughout the day, and by 9 pm 64 rockets had been fired, of them 44 were fired towards Eshkol and Sdot Negev Regional Council and the rest towards Sderot and Ashkelon.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Twp Katyusha rockets hit Ashdod area, Gaza militants' furthest target yet
(28 Dec) Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired a barrage of at least 40 rockets at the western Negev on Sunday, as the Israel Air Force continued to pound the coastal territory for a second day. Two Katyusha rockets, with a diameter of 122 mm, exploded near the northern Negev city of Ashdod. More than 30 kilometers from Gaza, this was the deepest into Israel a Palestinian rocket has yet to strike.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Hamas's Meshaal urges new intifada against Israel
(27 Dec) DAMASCUS (AFP) — Exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal called on Saturday for Palestinians to wage a new intifada against Israel, including a return to suicide missions. In an interview on Al-Jazeera television, Meshaal said: "We called for a military intifada against the enemy. Resistance will continue through suicide missions." Hamas has not carried out a suicide attack on Israel since January 2005. The first intifada, or uprising, broke out in 1988, and was followed by the 1993 Oslo peace accords, which led to a certain degree of Palestinian autonomy with the creation of the Palestinian Authority. A second intifada broke out in 2000 and eventually ran out of steam three years later. Meshaal said Hamas had accepted "all the peaceful options, but without results."
http://www.google.com/
Fatah: Hamas kept Fatah men in targeted prison compound, ensuring their deaths
(28 Dec) The West Bank Fatah movement accused the de facto government in the Gaza Strip of refusing to release 51 Fatah-affiliated prisoners held in the As-Saraya security compound, bombed by Israeli warplanes Sunday morning. Families of the prisoners killed in the bombing said "Hamas militants insisted on preventing prisoners from leaving the compound at gunpoint and even gathered all prisoners in one room to be an easy target." Several prison wardens were also injured.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Mangled bodies, wailing relatives at Gaza hospital
(27 Dec) GAZA CITY (AFP) — Relatives wail as the mangled bodies of loved ones are brought into Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital on Saturday following Israeli air strikes that killed at least 225 people in the Palestinian enclave. Ambulances and private cars rush those wounded or killed in the punishing raids to the hospital, where staff use sheets as makeshift stretchers. In some cases, a single stretcher is used to carry several bodies. Torn limbs fall to the blood-soiled floor. There is no space left in the morgue and bodies are piled up in the emergency room and in the corridors, while many of the severely wounded scream in pain. Overworked doctors and nurses can only deal with the most pressing cases..."My brother was still alive when he arrived here, and was talking to me but no one could help him. He died," said Ahmed al-Gharabli, his voice shaking and tears streaming down his cheeks. His brother Baha was a Hamas policeman.The bloodied body of another policeman, Mohammed Abu Shaaban, is carried on the same stretcher as that of a girl aged about 10 who was hit in the stomach.
http://www.google.com/
Gaza today: 'This is only the beginning'
(27 Dec) By Ewa Jasiewicz – Gaza City. ...We saw a bearded man, on a stretcher on the floor of an intensive care unit, shaking and shaking, involuntarily, legs rigid and thrusting downwards. A spasm coherent with a spinal cord injury. Would he ever walk again or talk again? In another unit, a baby girl, no older than six months, had shrapnel wounds to her face. A relative lifted a blanket to show us her fragile bandaged leg. Her eyes were saucer-wide and she was making stilted, repetitive, squeaking sounds. A first estimate at Al Aqsa hospital was 40 dead and 120 injured. The hospital was dealing with casualties from the bombed market, playground, Civil Defence Force station, civil police station and also the traffic police station. All levelled. A working day blasted flat with terrifying force.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Stench of death hangs over Gaza
(27 Dec) With thick clouds of smoke billowing into the sky and dead bodies littering into the streets, a stench of death rose from the ruins of the Gaza Strip on Saturday, December 27. "Where are my sons?" screamed Um Ibrahim as she ran hysterically looking for her little kids. She lives near a security compound Israeli planes pounded to the ground on Saturday. "I don't know what happened to them," cried the bereaved mother. Her neighbor Um Abed fell unconscious when she saw her son among the dead in the attacks ... Some rescue workers beat their heads and shouted "God is greatest" as one badly wounded man lying nearby quietly recited verses from the Qur'an.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
ISM: Mother of 13 killed by Israeli air strike - Internationals staying in Jabaliya amid fears of Israeli ground invasion
(28 Dec) Canadian citizen Eva Bartlett reported that: "Today we visited the home of martyred civilian Sara Aid Hawajereh, a 55 year-old mother of 7 boys and 6 girls. It was 11am this morning when Sara ventured out of her home in Jabaliya refugee camp to buy bread. On the way to the shop she was hit by shrapnel from an F16-launched missile and was killed." "Everyone in this house depended on Sara," said one of her sons. "She would wake at 5am each day to ensure our home was clean and tidy, before going out to the market to buy our bread and other groceries. Before she left this morning, my mother hurt her leg, but despite the injury she still insisted on going to get food for all of us children." Eva added, "Every loss is atrocious, but it is more poignant when you see it or know the dead."
http://www.palsolidarity.org/
Eyewitness: It was like an earthquake on top of your head. My son was terrified. I held him to my chest.
(28 Dec) By Dr Eyad Al Serraj. The bombing went on for about 10 minutes. It was like an earthquake on top of your head. The windows were shaking and squeaking. My ten-year-old son was terrified; he was jumping from one place to another trying to hide. I held him tight to my chest and tried to reassure him. My 12-year-old was panicking and began laughing hysterically - it's not normal. I held her hand and calmed her and told her she would be safe. My wife was panicking. She was also running around the apartment looking for somewhere to hide. We live on the ground floor so we headed to the basement. Not very far from our home are the headquarters of the police and there was a massive bomb.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
"The amount of death and destruction is inconceivable"
It was just before noon when I heard the first explosion. I rushed to my window and barely did I get there and look out when I was pushed back by the force and air pressure of another explosion. For a few moments I didn't understand but then I realized that Israeli promises of a wide-scale offensive against the Gaza Strip had materialized. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzpi Livni's statements following a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak the day before yesterday had not been empty threats after all.
http://electronicintifada.net/
'Little Baghdad' in Gaza - bombs, fear, and rage
(28 Dec) By Amira Hass. There are many corpses and wounded, every moment another casualty is added to the list of the dead, and there is no more room in the morgue. Relatives search among the bodies and the wounded in order to bring the dead quickly to burial. A mother whose three school-age children were killed, and are piled one on top of the other in the morgue, screams and then cries, screams again and then is silent. Mustapha Ibrahim saw all this on Saturday at one in the afternoon, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza. As a field investigator for a human rights organization, he thought he'd been immunized, but nothing prepared him for what he saw.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
The rains of death in Gaza
(27 Dec) By Laila El-Haddad. We woke up this morning to the news in Gaza. It seems we always wake up to news there -- so it has become a matter of perspective how bad the news is each time; how remote it seems each time; how real or not; how severe and whether the severity warrants an "international outcry" or whether the animals can continue to suffer in their cages for a while longer. We received a call from my in-laws in Lebanon at an early hour, checking in on my family in Gaza, since they cannot call them directly. We call my parents. My father does not answer. We call his mobile, we reach him. He has just returned from al-Shifa hospital -- we hold our breaths.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Inside Gaza: The hospital morgues were already full, the dead were piled on top of each other outside
(28 Dec) By Sami Abdel-Shafi. I am safe, and yet I feel like a walking dead person. Everything around me shows it. It is hard to write something of any coherence while exposed to cold winter air and to the smell that lingers after the detonation of Israeli bombs. They must have been massive. During the bombing I opened all the windows around my apartment to avoid them imploding as a result of the vacuum shocks sweeping through Gaza City after each enormous bang. While the bombing continued, I jumped down two flights of stairs to my father's house, to make sure he was OK. Should I open up all his windows too? That would expose the old man to the risk of illness. We have no medical care or medication. However, the risk from shattering glass was greater, so I opened them all.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
Report from ISM Gaza Strip as Israeli rockets hit Gaza
(27 Dec)By Sharon from Australia 3 pm from Gaza city - I was at home beside the small Gaza port, eating a bread and jam breakfast, when the rockets began to fall at about 11am. Six or seven deafening explosions occurred not far from my building, which rocked from the impact, smoke and dust filling the air. This occurred just as the children were on the streets walking back from school, and when I went out onto the stairs, a terrified 5 year old girl ran sobbing into my arms.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/
Gaza: the slaughter of a people
(27 Dec) In terms of casualties, Saturday, December 27th 2008 was the worst day in Palestine since the 1967 war. Israeli warplanes pounded the Gaza Strip all day using Apache helicopters and F-16 fighters. In an area considered to be the most densely populated on earth (1.5 million people in 350 square kilometers, 80% of whom are refugees forced out of their homes and into Gaza by Israel), the death toll was predictably large... The targets were mostly police stations, and the most striking image is that of dozens of new cadets lying dead on top of each other at Gaza City's main police station. They had been taking part in their graduation ceremony. I want to make a point here lost on many Western news agencies: the police force in Gaza is not the 'Hamas police'. Like any other police force in the world, it are an institution independent of the ruling party. It was around at the time Gaza was ruled by Fatah, by Hamas and by a unity government. The head of the police force, Tawfiq Jaber was amongst the first killed. He was a lifelong Fatah man....In response, there were clashes with Israeli troops across the West Bank. It was an outpouring of anger more than anything else. With nothing but rocks, we knew there was little we could do for those being slaughtered in Gaza. The helplessness was mutiplied, however, by the actions of Mahmoud Abbas' security forces in Ramallah. In a day when tens of their colleagues were murdered in cold blood in Gaza, the security forces followed us right up to the outskirts of the illegal Israeli settlement of Bet El (home to Israelis military command for the West Bank), the whole time taking note of faces, numbers and checking names and IDs. The operation was by no means covert, and the brashness was not lost on many of the disgusted demonstrators. The reason for all this overt information gathering readily became apparent. After getting hit with two rubber bullets and inhaling enough teargas for a lifetime, I was astonished to find Palestinian riot police walk calmly towards us at the point of confrontation with the Israeli soldiers, turn their backs to the Israelis and herd us away. I had never, ever heard of Palestinian police breaking up a demonstration against Israeli troops. The scene rubbed salt into a very open wound.
http://www.kabobfest.com/2008/
Gaza hunger in pictures
(26 Dec) I stopped by al shanty bakery mid of Gaza City. It is one of the biggest bakeries across Gaza which provides tens of thousands with bread. Hundreds of people crowded outside the bakery in a very long long row waiting for bag of bread. Children, women and men were awaiting the chance to have the bread which is totally running out in Gaza.
http://desertpeace.wordpress.
Hamas: Our Leaders Do Not Fear Death
Hamas officials in the Gaza Strip said Thursday that they were not worried about the possibility that Israel might assassinate the Islamic resistance movement's top leaders. The officials said that Hamas had prepared itself for such an eventuality to ensure there would be no leadership vacuum if Israel carried out its threats. They also stressed that the assassination of one or two Hamas leaders would not weaken the movement or deter it from pursuing its path of "resistance" against the Israeli occupation.
http://almanar.com.lb/
(27 Dec) By Kristen Ess - The streets of Ramallah are teeming with thousands of people beginning early Saturday afternoon. The leftists are shouting for Palestine, for justice. Dr. Mustafa Barghouthti has a television camera shoved in his face. He is talking about Israeli war crimes. "The West Bank is with you," a shout carries through the phone to friends in Gaza. All parties, all people, swarm not only the central West Bank city, but those throughout. The demonstrations are fierce and the streets are literally on fire. Forty people are reported injured in East Jerusalem's Shu'afat while Israeli forces arrest young people "on suspicion" of participating in the Issawiya and Mount Scopus demonstrations. PNN's Jenin correspondent reports on protests in the northern West Bank's Jenin that call for national unity.Tires and garbage cans are buring along the streets of East Jerusalem, Ramallah and southeastern Bethlehem.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.
Rallies for Gaza erupt in clashes, one Palestinian dead; West Bank calls comprehensive strike
(28 Dec) Protests against Israeli violence in Gaza continue across the West Bank and East Jerusalem Sunday, a comprehensive strike was declared across the West Bank. In Ni'lin, weekly Friday protests continued into Saturday and Sunday, when clashes erupted between protesters and Israeli soldiers. The clashes saw one killed and six others injured.The injured, including Mohammad Al-Khawaja who was shot in the head, were transferred to a Ramallah hospital and the slain man was identified as A'raft Al-Khwaja. In Hebron youth hurled Molotov cocktails at an Israeli military post near the Ibrahimi Mosque in the old city and set fire to car tires near the Israeli military post. One settler was reported injured after being hit by a stone.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Israeli Arabs take to the streets after strike on Gaza
JERUSALEM - Angry demonstrations broke out in Israel's Arab towns on Saturday after the deadly Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip which left at least 160 dead, eyewitnesses said. Hundreds took to the streets in Oum el-Fahem, Nazareth, Sahnin and Tamra in northern Israel in response to a call from leaders of the country's Arab community. Demonstrators chanted slogans condemning "Israeli aggression" and waved Palestinian flags. Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said: "Police have been placed on alert in the whole country" to deal with any trouble and to support the civil defence services. He gave no report of any incident at the protests.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/
Israeli Arabs react with violence to IDF operations in Gaza
(27 Dec) Israeli Arabs on Saturday protested Israel Defense Forces attacks in the Gaza Strip, with demonstrations and clashes with police breaking out in communities throughout Israel. In East Jerusalem, a police officer was lightly hurt by an Israeli Arab who hit him with his car. The driver, who has a criminal record, was arrested by police shortly thereafter. On Salah-a-Din Street in East Jerusalem, dozens of youths lit dumpsters and hurled stones at police. One assailant was arrested by police at the scene. In the Shuafat refugee camp, hundreds of Palestinian protestors threw rocks at security forces. In the West Bank settlement of Beitar Illit, a three-year-old boy was lightly hurt after he was hit in the eye by a rock thrower. In the Bedouin village of Rahat in the Negev, around 400 residents protested the attacks, while mosques throughout the town broadcast prayers of mourning.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Hamas unlikely to be toppled
(27 Dec) JERUSALEM (AP) — Gaza's deeply entrenched Hamas rulers won't be easily toppled, even by Israel's unprecedented bombings Saturday that killed more than 200 people, most of them men in Hamas uniform. For now, Israel's defense minister says he's striving for a lesser, temporary objective — to deliver such a punishing blow to Hamas that the Islamic militants will halt rocket attacks on Israel. But Israel's offensive, launched just six weeks before a general election in the Jewish state, is fraught with risks. The horrific TV images of dead and wounded Gazans are inflaming Arab public opinion, embarrassing moderate Arab regimes and weakening Hamas' rival, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Israel also risks opening new fronts, including unrest that could destabilize the Abbas-ruled West Bank and possible rocket attacks by Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas on northern Israel.
http://www.google.com/
With brothers like these, who needs enemies?
There is more than just a whiff of hypocrisy in the way Arab states such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia as well as the American-backed PA are dealing with the continuing nightmare in the Gaza Strip.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
PFLP: PA negotiation with IOA covers up for massacres
Dr. Maher Al-Taher, one of the prominent political leaders of the PFLP, has asked the PA leadership to stop all talks with the IOA and to reconsider agreements signed with it.
Gaza offensive clouds chances for Shalit deal
The start of Israel's offensive in Gaza illustrates why the Israel Defense Forces chief, General Gabi Ashkenazi, and Defense Minister Ehud Barak strongly recommended trying to reach an agreement that would bring about the release of abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit from his Palestinian captors in recent months. Currently it seems the operation has nullified chances such a deal may take place in the near future.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Delusions of victory in Gaza
(28 Dec) By Zvi Bar'el. As of yesterday, politicians and the public at large have been enthralled by a new prospect: that of a wide-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip. Such a prospect answers all their heart's secret wishes: Avenging the rocket fire by Gazan militants, reclaiming Israel's prestige, delivering a fatal blow to Hamas, providing payback for Israel's 2005 pullout from Gaza, sending a strong message to Iran, an implicit one to Hezbollah, and also showing the government's concern for its citizens and scoring some points with the electorate ahead of the elections... According to the government, Israel has full legitimacy to take action against those who threaten its citizens. That is the reason the state was created and no other country would tolerate such attacks on its towns. It's a nice slogan, identical to that of Hamas: Why should Gazan citizens tolerate such a long and severe siege for so long? Can its leadership tolerate a succession of targeted killing against its leaders? And what of the killing of innocent civilians in air strikes? Hamas agreed to a cease-fire to end the violent dialogue. It should be remembered that Israel chanted the same slogans when the Second Lebanon War began, from which it came back badly bruised. The optimistic scenario did not materialize then and it is hard to believe it will now in Gaza. The legitimacy of the Lebanon war triumphed just as the war was lost.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
'There is a time for calm ... now is the time to fight'
Mayhem, death and deafening destruction came to Gaza at 11.30am yesterday when Israel dropped a first wave of bombs on the Hamas security compounds it had determined to wipe off the face of the map. By the end of "Operation Solid Lead", about 60 aircraft had launched about 100 strikes and at least 205 people were reported to have been killed. It was the most devastating attack on Gaza since 1967.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
The Palestinian story: remember us
(27 Dec) When the passage of time finally brings the men of many lands to the tables of judgment, politicians from countries that have emboldened Israel with their silence will gaze into the eyes of delegations from around the world only to see the same eyes gazing back. Remember us for we may not be at that table. There are reasons for this. We were once free to roam the lands of our fathers, to feel happiness and to cry when in despair. From the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River was our realm, but how were we to know what they intended to do to our nation.They provoked wars and committed the most terrible of sins against the Jewish population, but when it was time to compensate, they put the burden of their own wrongdoings on our shoulders. One nation solemnly promised to a second nation the country of a third.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.
Does Israel Represent the Jewish People?
Close identification of the Jewish people with Israel was never a given. Repetitive urgings by those who had an interest in promoting a close relationship of world Jewry with Israel, and the innocence of those who readily accepted the notification permitted a vocal part of world Jewry into supporting Israel. By accepting the unwarranted association and making it seem that the Jewish people have the power to change Israel's policies, activists misdirect the path to a peaceful solution of the Middle East crisis, exacerbate the crisis and, by linking Israel's oppressive policies with the Jews, harm the security of Jewish persons throughout the world.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Over 50,000 rally as pro-Gaza demos sweep Egypt's cities
(28 Dec) CAIRO (AFP) – More than 50,000 people took to the streets of a dozen Egyptian cities on Sunday to protest against the killing of more than 280 Palestinians in 24 hours of Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip. The largest protest saw around 8,000 people demonstrate on the streets of Assiut, a city in southern Egypt of 400,000, a security official said, with another 3,000 gathering in Minya, south of Cairo.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/
Egypt slams Israeli 'murder' in Gaza, summons ambassador
(28 Dec) CAIRO (AFP) – Egypt condemned as "murder" Israel's Saturday air raids on Gaza that killed at least 228 Palestinians, opening its Rafah border crossing with the territory to allow the wounded through for treatment. "We call for an immediate end to Israeli military operations. We cannot allow these attacks to continue. We cannot permit the murder of Palestinians," Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said on state television. Egypt, the only Arab state along with Jordan to have signed a peace deal with Israel, summoned Ambassador Shalom Cohen to demand an end to the bombardment that has also left hundreds wounded.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/
Gaza holocaust ruffles Egypt
(27 Dec) By Amr Emam – Cairo. The sights of death and destruction in the besieged Gaza Strip struck close to the hearts of many Egyptians, especially with their government being accused of complicity in the latest Israeli crime. "Arab governments are complicit in what happens to the Palestinians," Ashraf Abdel Monem, who workers at a pharmaceuticals company, told IslamOnline.net. "These governments help Israel tighten its grip on the dispossessed Palestinians and kill them." ... But the images of Palestinians lying on the ground in the aftermath of the raids while blood was dispersed everywhere sent shockwaves in Egypt, a country that has officially signed a peace treaty with Israel almost 30 years ago, but continues to consider its northeastern neighbor an enemy on the public level. Abdel Monem joined several thousands of Egyptians, including opposition activists and MPS, who gathered outside the Journalists' Syndicate in downtown Cairo to protest the latest Israeli crime.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Egypt lays blame on Hamas
(27 Dec) WASHINGTON - The government in Cairo formally expressed its protest of the IDF operation in the Gaza Strip before the Israeli ambassador to Egypt. In the same breath, however, it made clear which party it holds responsible for the deterioration of the situation. Egyptian Foreign Minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said in a Cairo press conference that Egypt had long since warned Israel would respond in this manner, and added that those who did not heed the warning "should bear the responsibility."
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Q & A: Egypt in tight spot enforcing blockade of Gaza
(27 Dec) CAIRO (Reuters) - Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip, which killed at least 208 people on Saturday, have raised the stakes for Egypt in maintaining a blockade on the territory in spite of strong opposition from the Egyptian public. The strip, where some 1.5 million Palestinians live under Israeli and Egyptian blockade, is the biggest foreign policy headache the Egyptian government has faced at least since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003. Most Egyptian commentators other than those working for the state media find it embarrassing that Egypt is cooperating with the Israelis in a policy widely seen in Egypt as designed to undermine the Islamist movement Hamas by punishing ordinary Palestinians. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Saturday: "The simplest response to the massacre today is to reopen Rafah crossing once and for all. I tell our Arab brothers that the simplest response to the massacre is to end the siege." So why does Egypt continue to restrict access to Gaza? 1) the burden of Gaza 2) the Islamist factor 3) the U.S. alliance....
http://uk.reuters.com/article/
Gaza - the real terrorists
(27 Dec) By Stuart Littlewood - London. The patience of all decent men must surely be exhausted. Today's slaughter of innocents in Gaza, with at least 230 reported killed in raids on "Hamas terror operatives" (as the Israeli military put it), amounted to "a mass execution", said Hamas. Can there now be any doubt who the real terrorists are? The killing spree couldn't have happened without the tacit approval of America, Britain and the EU. The political pea-brains that direct the pro-Israel western alliance were partying, gorging themselves on Christmas fare or binge-shopping while this massacre of hungry women and children and their despairing menfolk in Gaza was being planned and executed. According to the US's own definition of terrorism Israel is squarely in the frame.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
The neighborhood bully strikes again
(28 Dec) By Gideon Levy. Israel embarked yesterday on yet another unnecessary, ill-fated war. On July 16, 2006, four days after the start of the Second Lebanon War, I wrote: "Every neighborhood has one, a loud-mouthed bully who shouldn't be provoked into anger... Not that the bully's not right - someone did harm him. But the reaction, what a reaction!" Two and a half years later, these words repeat themselves, to our horror, with chilling precision. Once again, Israel's violent responses, even if there is justification for them, exceed all proportion and cross every red line of humaneness, morality, international law and wisdom. What began yesterday in Gaza is a war crime and the foolishness of a country.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Hundreds of activists in Tel Aviv protest IAF strike in Gaza
(28 Dec) The protesters marched from Tel Aviv's Cinematheque toward the Defense Ministry offices. Police, some mounted on horseback, surrounded the protesters, arresting five of them. According to the protesters, Israel's military action in Gaza does not protect Israeli citizens or provide them security. "No one can tell us that slaughtering the citizens of Gaza is meant to protect the citizens of Sderot and Ashkelon," said Matan Kaminer, a student who participated in the march.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Israelis near Gaza call for more strikes on Hamas-run enclave
(27 Dec) NETIVOT, Israel (AFP) — In the impoverished Israeli town of Netivot where a Palestinian rocket killed a man on Saturday, residents want the military to keep hitting the nearby Hamas-run Gaza Strip, and hit it hard. "The government does not do enough, but it has to do the job. They must keep bombing Gaza until the Qassams stop," said Motti Turdjman in reference to the home-made rockets fired at southern Israel by militants in the Palestinian enclave fire on an almost daily basis. 'If they want calm, the people of Gaza must also give us calm," he said, shortly after a rocket killed a man in this town of 25,000 on the edge of the Negev desert.
http://www.google.com/
8-month-old Israeli baby hurt as Palestinians protest Gaza raid
(28 Dec) An eight-month-old Israeli baby was moderately wounded Sunday as Palestinians protesting the Israeli raid in Gaza hurled stones at vehicles south of Mount Hebron. Earlier Sunday, a one-year-old baby sustained injuries as shards of glass from a car window, shattered by stone throwers, in the same area.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Bethlehem douses Christmas lights over Gaza strikes
(27 Dec) BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AFP) — Christmas lights will be shut off around Bethlehem, including those on the city's giant Christmas tree, to protest Israel's deadly attacks in Gaza, its mayor said on Saturday. "We have decided to shut off the decorative lights and the Christmas tree to protest against the massacres committed in Gaza," Victor Batarseh told AFP. "Israel has sabotaged the holidays with these massacres," he said. The Christmas tree stands in front of the Church of the Nativity, where Christians believe Jesus Christ was born more than 2,000 years ago. It normally stays lit until the Orthodox Nativity celebrations in early January.
http://www.google.com/
Palestine: Another massacre
(27 Dec) By Nizar Sakhnini. Massacres were part and parcel of the Zionist project in Palestine. They aimed at intimidating the Arabs and make them leave the country. Dozens of massacres were committed against the Arabs starting with the massacre at Baldat al-Shaikh in December 1947 and not ending with the massacres in Qana in South Lebanon in 1996 and 2006. Another brutal massacre is being committed in Gaza today. Hundreds of Palestinian Arabs have been killed and/or wounded. Given below, is a list of some of the massacres committed by the Zionists since 1947: Massacre in Baldat al-Shaikh (31 December 1947): Haganah gang members stormed the village of Baldat al-Shaikh in pursuit of unarmed citizens. The death toll was about 600 people, most of whose corpses were found inside the houses of the village....
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Arabs throughout Middle East protest Israel airstrikes on Gaza
(28 Dec) Angry demonstrations broke out across the Arab world Saturday and diplomats in the region called for emergency measures in the aftermath of Israel's deadly air attacks against Hamas security strongholds in the Gaza Strip. But few expect the uproar to do more than reinforce regional trends: Pro-U.S. Arab governments continue to alienate large portions of their populations despite statements of protest against Israel, analysts said, while Iran and Syria score propaganda points for their continuing patronage of Islamic militant groups such as Hamas that fight Israel.
http://www.latimes.com/news/
The view from abroad
(27 Dec) By Jillian York, Boston. The Palestinian blogosphere, which is made of Palestinians and supporters around the world, is furious with what they perceive to be needless actions from Israel. No Justice No Peace...The Big Picture, an honorary member of the Palestinian blogosphere, spoke out: "200 dead, 750 wounded, and for what? For Qassam rockets which have killed < 10 people in 8 years. If ever there was an epitome of disproportionate use of force this attack by F-16's (paid for by US tax dollars my fellow Americans) is it. All in the name of 'self-defense'. Please. This is immoral offense, and indiscriminate killing, and, by god, if you hold elections and call it a democratic process then deal with the results in a civilized manner, but not quarantining Gaza, withholding funds, petrol, electricity, medical supplies, humanitarian ships, and UN mandated observers from entering Gaza and then wonder why home-made rockets are being fired (with no sophisticated guidance chips or any chance of doing massive damage)."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Hundreds of Bethlehem Residents Demonstrate Against the Massacre in Gaza
Hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets in Bethlehem to protest the deadly Israeli airstrike against the Gaza Strip. The demostration was called for by the civil society organizations in the district.
http://www.imemc.org/article/
Thousands protest in Rabat against Israeli strikes on Gaza
(27 Dec) RABAT (AFP) — Thousands of people marched in the Moroccan capital Saturday to protest Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip and called for revenge for the more than 200 Palestinians killed. A crowd estimated at 3,000 carried signs denouncing the "Israeli aggressors" and chanted that "with our soul, with our blood, we will sacrifice for you, Gaza!" Several Islamist organisations and political parties took part in the protest, including the opposition Justice and Development party (PJD). PJD party chief Abdelillah Benkirane criticised in particular the reticence of Arab states. "Where are they? Will they let people go to support the Palestinians?" he said to AFP. The Moroccan government Saturday condemned the Israeli strikes and called for "an immediate end to hostilities" and for talks between the two sides, the foreign ministry said in a statement.
http://www.google.com/
Hezbollah to Gazans: You Are Not by Yourselves
27/12/2008 The head of Hezbollah's Executive Council Sayyed Hachem Safieddine confirmed on Saturday that the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were not standing by themselves. Speaking during a protest in Southern Suburb of Beirut against the Israeli barbaric massacres, Sayyed Safieddine addressed Gaza residents saying, "You are not alone in this ordeal and the coming days will prove that the right that Gaza people are defending will obtain victory."
http://www.almanar.com.lb/
Syria condemns 'barbaric crime' in Gaza
(27 Dec) DAMASCUS (AFP) – Syria on Saturday condemned the Israeli air raids on the Gaza Strip as a "barbaric crime" and called for an emergency summit of the Arab League, the foreign ministry said in a statement. "Syria is following with great anxiety the barbaric Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza," the statement said, branding the attack which left at least 205 people dead "a horrific crime and terrorist act." "Syria calls on the Arab nation and the international community to use all possible means to put pressure in Israel to immediately stop the aggression, allow the wounded to enter hospital and open all crossing points" to Gaza.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/
Rallies against Israeli violence in Paris, Tel Aviv, London and Toronto
(28 Dec) French citizens called for a rally as the first Israeli bombs hit Gaza buildings Saturday. Organizers called the Israeli decision to bombard Gaza one parallel to the American decision to invade Iraq in 2003. The Israeli government is reversing the roles, said the call to action, they are calling the invasion a legitimate defense, they are "perverting reality and passing the aggressor for the victim." "Ca SUFFIT!!" was the call that brought 5,000 protesters to Paris streets demanding a halt to Israeli violence.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Iran orders all Muslims to defend Palestinians against Gaza raids
(28 Dec) Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a religious decree to Muslims around the world on Sunday, ordering them to defend Palestinians against Israel's attacks on Gaza, state television said. "All Palestinian combatants and all the Islamic world's pious people are obliged to defend the defenceless women, children and people in Gaza in any way possible. Whoever is killed in this legitimate defense is considered a martyr," state television quoted Khamenei as saying in a statement.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Report: Amid Gaza op, IAF sets off sonic booms over Lebanon
(28 Dec) The official Lebanese news agency said Sunday that Israel Air Force warplanes flew over south Lebanon and set off somic booms. It said that there had also been intensive activity by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles flying at intermediate altitudes over the south. The overflight came into the second day of an expansive Israel Air Force operation on the Gaza Strip, which thus far has left 280 Palestinians killed. Earlier Sunday, senior Lebanese security sources were quoted as saying that Hezbollah was unlikely to respond militarily to the IDF operation in Gaza.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
The Wahhabi-Zionist alliance
(28 Dec) The Saudi-Zionist alliance deepens. Back in 2006, the Saudi royal family endorsed the Israeli war on Lebanon. I looked at Saudi media yesterday, and it is very clear that the Saudi-Hariri media are supporting (implicitly because they fear their own people) the Israeli war on Gaza. If you look at the Hariri rag, Al-Mustaqbal, for example, they only showed pictures of dead Hamas military men, and not one of the civilians killed and injured during the Israeli attack. The mouthpiece of Prince Salman, Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat, printed an editorial by its editor in which he blamed the Palestinians for their ordeal. I usually don't link to the Saudi sleaze website, Elaph, but this one will please MEMRI and itis titled: "The Israeli Army Smashes the Agents of Iran in Gaza." All the babies and children killed and children are agents of Iran. Yes.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
UN follows Western example, refuses to condemn Israeli violence
(28 Dec) During an emergency meeting in New York the UN Security Council called for an immediate end to all military actions in the Gaza Strip. meeting began Saturday at Libya's request, and the 15 member council was convened to address the Israeli violence in Gaza. While the group called for an "end to violence" they did not condemn the Israeli actions. They did, however, insist that the humanitarian situation in Gaza be addressed quickly.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Hamas holds UN liable for Israel crimes
Hamas has condemned remarks by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as contribution to Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.
http://www.presstv.com/detail.
World leaders respond timidly to Gaza massacre
(28 Dec) By Dan Lieberman. The tepid response of world leaders to Israel's ferocious attack on a defenseless Gaza conveys a helpless feeling to all world citizens – brutality rules and we are all vulnerable to attack. Are world leaders totally ignorant of the events leading to the massive destruction of Palestinian life? Are they unaware of Israel's provocations and shrewd manipulation of the facts which allowed them to seem innocent and carry out a diabolical plan to destroy the Palestinians? The facts are:....
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Carlos Latuff cartoon: Israeli raid on Gaza
http://palestinianpundit.
Pope, Muslims react to Israel's Gaza strike
(28 Dec) Two leading U.S. Muslim organizations, the Muslim Public Affairs Council and the Council on American-Islamic Relations, have issued statements decrying Israel's ongoing airstrikes against Hamas in Gaza, which have reportedly killed more than 225 people, and which are Israel's response to rocket attacks from Gaza against Israeli communities...At the Vatican today, Pope Benedict XVI, who is expected to visit Israel in May, called for an end to the violence, saying, "The homeland of Jesus cannot continue to be witness to so much bloodshed, which repeats itself endlessly...I implore an end to that violence, which must be condemned in all its manifestations, and the restoration of the truce in the Gaza Strip.'' Yesterday I posted a statement from Boston Jewish leaders defending the attacks here.
http://www.boston.com/news/
US blames Hamas for cease-fire break
(27 Dec) CRAWFORD, Texas (Reuters) - The United States on Saturday blamed the Islamist group Hamas for breaking a ceasefire and urged Israel to avoid civilian casualties after it launched air strikes that killed more than 200 people in Gaza. The United States put responsibility for ending the violence on the Palestinian group which controls the Gaza Strip and which Washington considers a terrorist organization.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/
Bush Winks at Israel's Slaughter in Gaza, Obama and Clinton Are Silent
(27 Dec) President-elect Barack Obama and Secretary of State-to-be Hillary Clinton were shamefully silent in the first hours after the attack. Bush's reaction, and the non-reaction by Obama and Clinton, underscores the point that Hanan Ashrawi made on Saturday. "Israel has gotten used to not being held accountable and to being a country that is above the law," said the Palestinian legislator and human rights activist. She called the bombings a "massacre."
http://www.progressive.org/
Obama 'monitoring' Gaza strikes: spokesman
(27 Dec) HONOLULU, Hawaii (AFP) — US president-elect Barack Obama is "monitoring" the deadly violence in the Gaza strip while he is on vacation in Hawaii, a spokesperson said Saturday. Obama, who takes office on January 20, "is closely monitoring global events, including the situation in Gaza," said his chief national security spokesperson Brooke Anderson. Anderson however emphasized that "there is one president at a time," a statement Obama has said often since he was elected on November 4. In a July interview with The New York Times, Obama said he didn't think that "any country would find it acceptable to have missiles raining down on the heads of their citizens," in reference to rockets fired from Gaza into Israel. "If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that," Obama said. "And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing."
http://www.google.com/
Israeli air strikes on Gaza Strip imperil Obama's peace chances
(28 Dec) Israel's airstrikes on Gaza yesterday, in retaliation for a nonstop barrage of rocket attacks from Hamas fighters, raised the prospect of an escalation of violence that could scuttle any hopes the incoming Obama administration harbored of forging an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal... One senior Bush administration official said he thinks the Israelis acted in Gaza "because they want it to be over before the next administration comes in." Although Bush has largely been supportive of almost any Israeli action taken in the name of self-defense, the official pointed out: "They can't predict how the next administration will handle it. And this is not the way they want to start with the new administration."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Axelrod: Obama Understands Israel's Urge To Respond
One of Barack Obama's chief spokesmen repeated on Sunday that it would be counterproductive for the president-elect to weigh too deeply into the crisis between Israel and Hamas while another commander-in-chief occupied the Oval Office. But David Axelrod, appearing on CBS's Face the Nation, did reaffirm Obama's commitment to the "special relationship between the United States and Israel" in a way that suggested general sympathy for the Jewish state's actions.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Obama refuses to be drawn on Israeli-Palestinian conflict
President-elect Barack Obama was briefed at the weekend by the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, about the Israeli bombardment of Gaza but afterwards gave no hint of how he would go about resolving the conflict.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Ni'lin holds two consecutive demonstrations against the Apartheid Wall
On Friday 26th December, around 250 protesters turned out for the Friday prayer demonstration against the Apartheid wall in Ni´lin. There was a large international and Israeli presence there in solidarity with the Palestinians.
http://www.palsolidarity.org/
Suicide bomber hits Iraqi Gaza protest
BAGHDAD (AP) — A suicide bomber on a bicycle blew himself up Sunday amid a crowd of demonstrators in northern Iraq who were protesting Israel's airstrikes on Gaza, killing one demonstrator and wounding 16 others, Iraqi police said. The bomber rode his bicycle into the demonstration of about 1,300 people in the center of the northern city of Mosul, said a police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with news media.
http://www.google.com/
Civilian deaths in Iraq 98,000 since 2003: study
BAGHDAD, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Sectarian bloodshed has dropped sharply in Iraq from the high levels of 2006-07, but attacks against U.S. and government forces continue, claiming the lives of Iraqi civilians in step, a new study found on Saturday. Between at least 8,300 and 9,000 civilians were killed in Iraq in 2008, bringing the total of civilian deaths since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 to at least 98,400, human rights group Iraq Body Count said in a new report. Twenty-five civilians died a day in 2008, the study found. While far below 2006-2007, when at least 48,000 civilians were killed, it is comparable to violence during 2003-2004.
http://www.alertnet.org/
Sunday: 1 US Soldier, 10 Iraqis Killed; 36 Iraqis Wounded
Excerpt: Thousands of Iraqis demonstrated against an Israeli operation that has so far left almost 300 Palestinians dead. Although most of the protests were peaceful, a suicide bomber took advantage of one anti-Israel demonstration in Mosul to carry out his own deadly operation. Overall, at least 10 Iraqis were killed and another 36 were wounded across the country. A U.S. soldier was also killed in a roadside bomb attack in Baghdad. Meanwhile, an Iraqi court opened a new trial against Tariq Aziz, "Chemical Ali," and over 20 more defendants accused of crimes against humanity.
http://www.antiwar.com/
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www.TheHeadlines.org
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