(4 Jan, AP) The military used overwhelming firepower from tanks, artillery and aircraft to protect the advancing soldiers, and Gaza officials said at least 31 civilians were killed in the onslaught. An armored force south of Gaza City penetrated as deep as the abandoned settlement of Netzarim, which Israel left along with other Israeli communities when it pulled out of Gaza in 2005. That move effectively cut off Gaza City , the territory's largest population center with some 400,000 residents, from the rest of Gaza to the south. The offensive focused on northern Gaza , where most of the rockets are fired into Israel , but at least one incursion was reported in the southern part of the strip.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/
Fighting concentrated in ring around Gaza City
(4 Jan) The heaviest fighting, according to initial reports, appears to be taking place in a ring round Gaza city, a Israeli tanks pushed towards the sea in a column south of the city and moved closer to the city in three separate prongs from the north. Fighting has been reported in the northern towns of Beit Hanoun, Beit Lahiya, and Jabaliya, near the former Israeli settlement Nitzarim, and in Gaza City neighborhoods, including Zaytoun, At-Toufah, and Ash-Shuja'yya. Sunday's developments are as follows: By Sunday evening there are reports that Israeli troops are entering residential areas. 7:00pm Medical officials confirm two are killed by an airstrike near a mosque in the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City . 6:30pm Israeli warplanes bomb a money changer's shop in Ar-Rimal, an upscale neighborhood of Gaza City . 6:00pm Two airstrikes kill three medics and wound another in Tal Al-Hawa, south of Gaza City ….
http://www.maannews.net/en/
What Israel doesn't want you to see
NOT SAFE FOR CHILDREN!
This video clip was taken with a mobile camera immediately after a terrorist Israeli air strike hit a busy market where kids with their mothers and fathers were searching for food to eat from one of the local markets early on Saturday 3 Jan 2009 , Gaza .
http://sabbah.blip.tv/#1642223
Mother and four children among latest Gaza dead – 510 total killed
(4 Jan) A mother and her four children became the most recent victims of an ongoing Israeli air and ground offensive on the Gaza Strip on Sunday, bringing the death toll to 35 since the ground invasion began on Saturday night. Palestinian medical officials in Gaza said that the five members of the Baker family were blown to pieces when Israeli warplanes targeted their home in the At-Toufah neighborhood of Gaza City . Medics also said that two of the children were one and two years old respectively. The ages of the other two were not determined. Separately an airstrike in Jabaliya has killed five Palestinians. Four other children were killed in the town of Beit Lahiya , in the north of the Gaza Strip, in a series of airstrikes during which ten civilians were killed and 30 injured. Tank fire killed eighteen Palestinians on Sunday, including 14 in Beit Lahiya and four in Beit Hanoun….
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Israel's air force strikes orphanage in Ar-Rimal; one killed
(3 Jan) Israeli air forces struck an orphanage in the Ar-Rimal neighborhood of Gaza city on Saturday night, Ma'an's reporter in Gaza said. One person was killed in an attack. The apparent target of the attack was a group of Palestinian fighters stationed near a mosque in the same neighborhood.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Fighting in dense Gaza brings child casualties
(3 Jan, AP) Samar Hamdan ran weeping through the street, trying to touch the body of her dead 11-year-old brother during a funeral procession in this northern Gaza town. Just a day before, the 15-year-old girl's two sisters were also buried, victims of the same strike from an Israeli missile. As Israel steps up its attacks on the Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip, one of the most densely populated spots on Earth, children are paying the price.
http://www.miftah.org/Display.
PA Minister of Health condemns Israeli killing of medical team in Gaza; says wounded should come to West Bank
(4 Jan) Fathi Abu Moghli expressed his fear over reports that Israeli forces are attacking ambulances and medical crew in the Gaza Strip. The latest was the killing a doctor and the injury of four other medical workers as well as preventing patients from accessing hospitals for medical treatment, he said. Abu Moghli said the injured in Gaza were better off coming to hospitals in the West Bank and Jerusalem to ensure their proper care.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Video: Amid Gaza violence, Israeli and Palestinian doctors save baby's life
(4 Jan) As rockets rained down in Israel and Gaza , doctors from both sides united in a successful bid to keep a two-week-old Palestinian baby boy alive.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Al Mezan: 52 Gazans killed as Israeli forces invade
(4 Jan) Yesterday, at approximately 7pm , [the IOF] started a ground invasion into the northern parts of the Gaza Strip and the eastern suburbs of Gaza City under heavy bombardment from the air. Fifty-two people have been killed by the IOF throughout the Gaza Strip since yesterday evening (seven children and three women). Another 182 have been injured (26 children and 10 women). IOF has continued to show disregard to the rules of international law relevant to armed conflict, inflicting severe harm to civilian life and property. According to the monitoring of Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, Israeli aircraft bombarded al-Makadma Mosque in Beit Lahia while dozens of people were praying in it last night. Fifteen people were killed and 25 others injured, as a result….
http://electronicintifada.net/
Some 20 Palestinians killed after Israeli ground invasion of Gaza: source
GAZA, Jan 03, 2009 (Xinhua via COMTEX News Network)--Hassan Khalaf, an official at Shifa hospital in Gaza City said that about 20 Palestinians were killed on Saturday evening, after Israel launched ground invasion against Gaza Strip. Khalaf said the 20 killed include both militants and civilians.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/
Five Al-Aqsa Brigades fighters wounded in battles with Israeli forces in Gaza
(4 Jan) The Al-Aqsa Brigades, an armed group loyal to Fatah, has confirmed that five of its fighters were wounded in battles with Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip. According to the group, the most recent fighting has taken place neat the Karni border crossing (Al-Mintar) and the abandoned Israeli settlement Neizarim, south of Gaza City . At Neizarim, two brothers, Ahmad and Muhammad Al-Busheiti, have been seriously injured. The Al-Aqsa Brigades say they have also fought Israeli troops in the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City , Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya in the north, and Rafah in the south. They also said they detonated a bomb as Israeli forces passed Netzarim.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Al-Quds Brigades clash with Israeli tank in northern Gaza; several attacks reported
(4 Jan) Islamic Jihad's Al-Quds Brigades launched a Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG) at an Israeli tank next to the Al-Ja'al fuel station east of Gaza City . In an earlier clash in the Az-Zaitoun area the Brigades said four activists were injured. The Brigades statement said the attack was to assure the Israeli forces that Gazans would not stand aside as their people are massacred by the Israeli army. Earlier in the day Islamic Jihad's military wing the Al-Quds Brigades said their fighters detonated an explosive near an Israeli tank in the Zaitoun neighborhood of Gaza City . They said the tank was completely destroyed and its ruins aflame. They said the soldiers in the tank were either dead or seriously injured.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Hamas leader: Israel killing Gaza civilians, not our fighters
(4 Jan) A Hamas leader early on Sunday morning denied reports that armed groups affiliated with the Islamic movement had been killed by invading Israeli forces. Appearing on Al-Jazeera just after midnight on Sunday, Mousa Mohammad Abu Marzook claimed that “there are casualties, but they are of the people of the Gaza Strip, not us.” The Qatar-based network had reported Israeli claims that up to 13 Hamas fighters were dead.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Gaza telecommunication systems offline
(4 Jan) Palestinian [mobile] communications networks are barely functioning in the Gaza Strip due to cables damaged by several Israeli airstrikes on network infrastructure on Saturday. Palestinian mobile provider Jawwal's phone may stop working “at any minute” as shelling severely damaged the provider's telecommunications network in Gaza . Landlines appeared to be working properly between homes in Gaza and Ma'an's headquarters in Bethlehem .
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Peres: No Gaza truce right now, Hamas needs a ‘real lesson'
(4 Jan) "We don't intend neither to occupy Gaza nor to crush Hamas, but to crush terror. And Hamas needs a real and serious lesson. They are now getting it," Peres said in an interview on the ABC News program "This Week." "We shall not accept the idea that Hamas will continue to fire and we shall declare a cease-fire. It does not make any sense," Peres said. "They cannot explain why they are shooting...and they cannot hide that they are acting by orders from Iran . Iran has two satellites in the Middle East , the Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza ."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Ramon, Yishai abstain in Cabinet vote on incursion
Vice Premier Haim Ramon and Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Eli Yishai were the only two cabinet members to abstain from voting in favor of a ground incursion in Gaza in Friday's special cabinet meetings.
The two reportedly refrained from casting a yea vote, after their demand to include toppling Hamas' regime in the Strip in the operational goals of the incursion was denied.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Shin Bet chief: Hamas has eased its demands for Gaza truce with Israel
(4 Jan) Head of the Shin Bet General Security Services Yuval Diskin told a cabinet meeting Sunday that Hamas had eased its demands on a cease-fire with Israel , nine days after a IDF operation in Gaza began. "There are signs that Hamas has softened their stance towards the conditions of a cease fire," Diskin said.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Hamas urges unconditional Palestinian dialogue
(4 Jan) DUBAI (AFP) – Palestinian Islamist group Hamas said on Sunday it was ready for an unconditional national dialogue to respond to a nine-day Israeli offensive that has killed at least 485 people in the Gaza Strip. "Hamas is calling for a national meeting to counter the aggression," Mohammed Nazzal, a member of the group's politburo, told pan-Arab television Al-Arabiya. “We are ready to hold a meeting anywhere agreed upon without any conditions... The sole theme: how to counter the aggression because there is no time to talk about any other issue," Nazzal said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/
_090104133039
Hamas military spokesperson will not confirm report of kidnapped Israeli soldiers
(4 Jan) Hamas' military wing the Al-Qassam Brigades refused to confirm or deny a story the group's Al-Aqsa TV aired claiming the group captured two Israeli soldiers in the Gaza Strip during clashes on Sunday.
Speaking to the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera TV, Al-Qassam spokesperson Abu Ubayda warned Israeli soldiers that more surprises were awaiting them in the Gaza Strip…Abu Ubayda went on to say that in case Israeli aggression continued, Palestinian resistance would capture Israeli soldiers. “Shalit might have several companions,” he said.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Two Israeli soldiers dead, at least 36 others injured as Gazans resist invasion
(4 Jan) Two Israeli soldiers are said to be dead after suffering critical injuries Saturday night as troops began a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. Earlier reports from Israel of two critically injured soldiers moved to Israeli hospitals at Soroka, Barzilai and Tal Hashomar with 28 other injured Israelis seem to corroborate the story. According to an Israeli military spokesperson Sunday evening one soldier was killed by a mortar shell in Beit Lahiya and another seriously wounded in Jabaliya. According to an Al-Arabiya reporter four more Israeli soldiers were injured near Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip. The reporter said one soldier was critically injured. Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV reported fighters kidnapped two Israeli soldiers, but later Hamas officials refused to confirm or deny the report.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
IDF soldier killed, another seriously wounded in Gaza ground operation
(4 Jan) An Israeli soldier was killed in a clash with Gaza militants on Sunday, the first fatality suffered by Israel since it launched a ground operation on Saturday night against the coastal territory's Hamas rulers. The fallen soldier was identified as Staff Sergeant Dvir Emmanueloff, 22, from Givat Ze'ev, near Jerusalem …Sky News reported Sunday that around 150 tanks had gathered at the site of the former settlement of Netzarim. In addition to the fatality, 31 Israel Defense Forces soldiers have been wounded, three of them seriously, in clashes with Gaza gunmen since the ground incursion began.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Five Israeli soldiers killed, about 29 wounded in clashes with the resistance
(4 Jan)The Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said on Saturday night that at least 5 Israeli soldiers were killed an 29 others wounded during an IOF incursion into the Zaitoun neighbourhood of Gaza.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Rocket attacks persist despite Gaza invasion
(4 Jan) IDF says Hamas having difficulties manufacturing new rockets, but still has enough to continue and perhaps increase launchings in coming days
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Four lightly wounded as Gaza rockets hit southern Israel
(4 Jan) At least 30 rockets hit southern Israel Sunday; nine rockets hit Sderot; Grad missile strikes Ashdod .
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Beit Lahiya mosque hit, 460 Palestinians killed
(3 Jan)Both warplanes and ships continued to bomb the Gaza Strip throughout Saturday, leaving 460 Palestinians dead and 2,300 injured as of 8:20 pm. Temperatures have dropped, residents are living in bitter cold and without any sense of security. The repeated cry today has been, "There is nowhere safe in Gaza ."
http://english.pnn.ps/index.
Six children among 12 killed in mosque blast
(4 Jan)The shells could not have fallen at a worse time. Yesterday's afternoon prayers in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya were unusually busy because worshippers had abandoned their evening prayers in the belief that if the Israelis planned to strike, they would do so at night. But as the townspeople left the mosque at dusk, the explosions began, killing at least 12 people, six of whom were children. They came only hours before the Israeli ground offensive was launched into Gaza .
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Israeli war planes bomb mosque in Gaza during prayers
(4 Jan)The IOF troops have committed Saturday fresh crime against Palestinian citizens in Gaza as Israeli warplanes bombed a mosque in the northern Gaza Strip, killing and wounding tens of worshipers.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Child killed by Israeli tank fire in Gaza
(4 Jan, AFP)A Palestinian child was killed by Israeli tank fire in the Gaza Strip late Saturday, becoming the first victim of a ground offensive against the Hamas stronghold, medics said.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/
Operation Cast Lead: three boys killed whilst they sleep
(3 Jan, Defence for Children International)As of 3 January 2009, reports indicate that around 421 Palestinians are now dead and more than 2,000 injured since the start of 'Operation Cast Lead' eight days ago.
http://www.dci-pal.org/
Israeli forces bomb schools and mosques
(3 Jan) Al Mezan – 4 pm Gaza time. Israeli attacks on Gaza have continued for an eighth day. The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) targeted more civilian objects. This includes bombardment of more houses and the Civil Defense building in Bani Suhaila town and the American School in northern Gaza . Air raids have also targeted open areas within the neighborhood, but particularly along the eastern and northern borders and the border between Gaza and Egypt . IOF's naval vessels escalated their bombardment of Gaza 's beaches. The death toll resulted from IOF's attacks has reached 363, including at least 59 children and 18 women. This figure reflects only those cases which Al Mezan Center has been able to verify, and it is expected to rise.
http://electronicintifada.net/
“He would tease us and ask if we wanted to die as martyrs with him,” Rayyan's daughter says
(4 Jan) One of the surviving daughters of slain Hamas leader Nizar Rayyan, Walaa, spoke to Ma'an Saturday. She is married with two young daughters…Walaa's mother, father, ten brothers and sisters and Rayyan's three other wives were killed during an Israeli airstrike on the family home. “My father raised us all to love martyrdom,” Walaa said. In the days before the attack that killed most of the family Walaa said “My father couldn't sleep…after a woman came to him complaining that she had nothing with which to feed her children and had to soak days-old bread and give it to them. “Oh my God! We reached a point that a woman doesn't have anything to feed her children?” she remembers her father saying.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Human Rights Watch
Israel : Gaza Ground Offensive Raises Laws of War Concerns
http://www.alertnet.org/
Israel bars ICRC entering Gaza
(3 Jan)For a second day running, Israeli authorities have barred a Red Cross medical team from entering Gaza to help treat residents injured in bombings.
http://www.presstv.com/detail.
Israel bans foreign journalists from entering Gaza
(2 Jan, AP)Despite court order to let them in.
http://www.latimes.com/
5103677.story
Palestinians in Israel, West Bank
Israeli Arabs on Gaza firing line lack shelter
Homes in Jewish towns and settlements are required to have one room with reinforced walls and a steel door. Public bomb shelters are accessible, and protective barriers even have been erected in rural areas.
The Arab town of Rahat , population 45,000, is about 24 miles from Gaza and is situated on the outer perimeter reachable by the long-range rockets that Hamas has unleashed for the first time. Few homes here have a safety room, and there are no public shelters.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/
Tens of thousands rally in Galilee, condemning Israeli violence
(4 Jan) Tens of thousands of Palestinians living in Israel participated in a rally in Sakhnin against Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip on Saturday afternoon. According to Israel Radio the rally was the largest gathering of Palestinians in Israel since 2000, when the second Intifadah broke out. Palestinians from all over Israel gathered in the Galilee city, and were joined by members of the Israeli Knesset as well as mayors and heads of local councils. Right wing Israeli Minister Avigdor Lieberman described the rally as “call for the extermination of the state of Israel .”
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Arab citizens are not a fifth column
(4 Jan) Within the central context of the war between Israel and Hamas, the fabric of relations between Israel 's Jewish and Arab citizens is suffering a serious blow. …we are currently witnessing an aggressive campaign to delegitimize the Arab public and its right to take an opposing position. The demand directed at Arab citizens is to unambiguously choose sides in the conflict. Lack of complete support for Israel is interpreted as identification with Hamas. Sadly, too many Jews cannot reconcile the identity of the Palestinian citizens of Israel with the suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza , part of their people. Accusing Arab citizens of being a "fifth column" is bringing out very disturbing expressions from many citizens. A quick survey of "talkbacks" from news Web sites finds calls for mass deportation of Arabs, withdrawal of citizenship, an economic boycott and even a proposal that the police use live fire against Arab demonstrators.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/
Islamic-Christian organization: new wave of hate of Israelis
(3 Jan)Popular demonstrations in East Jerusalem continue Saturday after sit-ins at Bab Al Amoud in the Old City and a march toward Al Aqsa Mosque. The Islamic-Christian organization normally expends its energies protecting Jerusalem holy sites, but today is warning of the international repercussions of the continued attacks on Gaza on the already tarnished image of the Israelis. The Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip are leading, says the Islamic-Christian organization, “to a new wave of serious hatred in the region.”
http://english.pnn.ps/index.
Doctors: IDF troops shoot and kill Palestinian stone-thrower in West Bank
(4 Jan) Doctors say Mufid Saleh Walweel, 22, was shot in the head after a protest against Israel 's military operation in the Gaza Strip became violent. Police on Monday arrested seven Israeli Arabs, three of them youths, for allegedly hurling stones and setting fire to tires near the entrance to the Mishad municipal council in the north. Authorities have arrested 49 people for disturbing the peace since the Israel Air Force began its aerial offensive in the Gaza Strip on Saturday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Yatta youth shot by Israeli forces during Hebron protest
(4 Jan) 26-year-old Talal Al-Hawamda of Yatta was shot during clashes with Israeli soldiers south of Hebron . Tension in the city boiled over when a group of youth saw an Israeli patrol in the Az-Zeef area in southern Hebron city as they protested the ongoing bloodshed in Gaza . Several youth threw stones at the armored vehicles. Soldiers responded by shooting at the young men, and one of the bullets caught Al-Hawmada in the right thigh. Earlier Sunday Israeli forces killed a 20-year-old in Qalqiliya during a similar protest.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Hebron calls strike as UN Security Council meets in New York
(4 Jan) Palestinian factions in the West Bank city of Hebron announced a comprehensive strike coinciding with the meeting of the UN Security Council as it discusses the Israeli assault on Gaza . The strike will include all governmental and NGO organizations, but schools will continue to operate.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Mass demonstration in Ramallah in solidarity with Gaza
(4 Jan) Hundreds of Palestinians took to the streets in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Sunday to denounce the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. Demonstrators carried banners calling for Palestinian national unity, for Palestinian factions to oppose the Israeli onslaught, and for the international community to intervene and stop the “massacres.” Mustafa Barghouthi, the former Palestinian Information Minister and presidential candidate said that the Gaza invasion shows Israel's “real face” and that he fears more massacres are coming.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Wife of activist detained at Huwwara checkpoint near Nablus
(4 Jan) Israeli forces arrested a young Palestinian woman at the Huwwara checkpoint south of Nablus for carrying “banned material” on Saturday evening. 23-year-old Kifah Afana was taken to an interrogation center in HaSharon, and soldiers have refused to allow her father to see her or send a change of clothes. Kifah Afana is married to a detained Al-Aqsa Brigades activist who is serving a 15-year sentence in Israel .
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Pics
http://www.philipweiss.org/
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/
Gaza massacre slide show – by Sabbah
http://www.slide.com/r/
Life inGaza now
What We Are Hearing From People in Gaza
http://www.kabobfest.com/2009/
Gaza civilians left exposed in Israeli invasion
(4 Jan) GAZA CITY (AP) – With booms from artillery and airstrikes keeping them awake, the 10 members of Lubna Karam's family spent the night huddled in the hallway of their Gaza City home. Earlier strikes shattered the living room windows, letting cold air pour in. The Karams haven't had electricity for a week and have run out of cooking gas. The family, including three small children younger than four, eats cold, canned beans. "It's war food," said Karam, 28. "What else can we do?" Karam said she always felt under threat. She said her family didn't sleep. "We keep hearing the sounds of airplanes and we don't know if we'll live until tomorrow, or not," she said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/
Norwegian doctor in Gaza invites Livni to see civilians Israel is ‘not' hitting
(4 Jan) The Dr described what is going on in Gaza as catastrophic. What needs to happen, he said, is that Israel needs to stop shelling and to protect Gazan civilians by providing humanitarian aid like food and fuel and medical supplies. Gilbert arrived in Gaza with a second Norwegian doctor, Enrich Foucee, via the Rafah crossing on the third day of the Israeli airstrikes. They were the only two foreign physicians allowed into the area, and were sent with The Norwegian Aid Committee (NORWAC), while doctors from Qatar, Jordan and Saudi Arabia were turned away. Speaking about the conditions in the hospitals he said that any medical facility in Paris or New York would close down if faced with circumstances like those in the Gaza centers. I don't know how many of the doctors can stand losing so many people as Israel continues to shell the area.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
A chilling tale of being caged
(3 Jan) By Bilal Badwan. The Israeli military leadership has targeted civilian homes in each neighbourhood of Gaza warning its residents that buildings will be shelled. One man from the Al Shata refugee camp received a phone call from an Israeli soldier urging him to leave the area because his home would shortly be shelled. He left for his brother's home. Three hours after the first phone call the man's brother got a similar message-they both left for a new location. Thousands of others left their homes after the start of the strikes and the psychological warfare, but many have now returned since all their "safe places" became targets.
http://archive.gulfnews.com/
Gaza diary: Do Israel pilots feel happy killing innocent women and children?
(3 Jan) By Fida Qishta.A Palestinian inGaza chronicles life under Israeli bombardment –I go to visit friends in the Block J neighbourhood in Rafah in the south of the Gaza Strip. While I am in a friend's house, my phone rings. It's a friend from Gaza City , calling for a chat. Suddenly I hear the sound of an explosion at his end. At the same time I hear an explosion in Rafah too. Just outside, somewhere near. My friend says: "Fida, they are attacking nearby." I say: "They are attacking here too." I run into the street and everybody is running, children and grown-ups, all looking to see if their relatives and friends are alive. It is the time for children to go to school for the second shift, after the first shift finishes at 11.30am.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Live from Gaza
(3 Jan)Gaza father and local director of the PNGO, Amjad Al Shawa, spoke with PNN on Saturday, a week after the air attacks began. The people here are surviving devastating conditions due to the continuous, intensive air strikes. From the early morning until now we have tens of air strikes on various parts of the Gaza Strip. In this early morning they were targeting a house.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.
"They know no limits now"
(3 Jan)In the haze of dust and smoke from the latest F-16 strike, a family self-evacuates. The dispatcher at the Jabaliya Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) receives call after call from terrified residents fleeing their homes. It's a new year, a new Nakba, and an old scene; Israel is bombarding Gaza once again and the world is standing idly by, sitting on a fence very different from the electrified border fence encaging Gaza , or the separation wall dividing and ghettoizing the West Bank . Eva Bartlett reports from the besieged Gaza Strip…The feeling of being utterly surrounded by war planes, tanks, bulldozers and warships increases as news comes of the latest attack around Gaza: an orphanage in Gaza City, near the Palestine Mosque, with whispers that the holy place is next, marking at least 10 mosques destroyed.
http://electronicintifada.net/
As the troops enter, we fear the wors – Eyad El-Sarraj
(4 Jan)GAZA CITY How much worse can it get? After a horrifying week, the Israelis have arrived once again at our doorstep. What now? Already we have experienced so much terror and want.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Family flees Israeli fire once again
(3 Jan) By Rami Almeghari writing from the occupied Gaza Strip. The Shaath family is one of thousands that have been forced to flee their houses near the Gaza-Egypt border as Israeli warplanes have bombed the area for seven days straight. Israel has attempted to destroy tunnels used by Palestinians to bring in essential supplies include food, livestock and medicine to circumvent a tight 19-month long Israeli siege that has made these necessities scarce…Outside in the yard, Marwan's 72-year-old father Ali was playing with his granddaughter. "What can I say, my son?" he said. "Throughout my life I have lived many displacements. This is the latest." Before Israel was created in 1948 and he and other residents were forced out, Ali lived in the town of Bir al-Saba (now called Beersheeva by Israel ).
http://electronicintifada.net/
Gaza Siege
http://gazasiege.org/
Profile: Hamas
http://english.aljazeera.net/
Hamas moves on Fatah ‘collaborators'
(4 Jan) The Hamas government has placed dozens of Fatah members under house arrest out of fear that they might exploit the current IDF operation to regain control of the Gaza Strip. The move came amid reports that the Fatah leadership in the West Bank has instructed its followers to be ready to assume power over the Gaza Strip when and if Israel 's military operation results in the removal of Hamas rule.
Fatah officials in Ramallah toldThe Jerusalem Postthat Hamas militiamen had been assaulting many Fatah activists since the beginning of the operation last Saturday. They said at least 75 activists were shot in the legs while others had their hands broken. Wisam Abu Jalhoum, a Fatah activist from the Jabalya refugee camp, was shot in the legs by Hamas militiamen for allegedly expressing joy over the IDF air strikes on Hamas targets.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/
Hamas regrets PA persecution of demos
RAMALLAH, (PIC)--Ra'fat Nassif, one of Hamas's political leaders in the West Bank, has expressed regret over the PA security apparatuses' obstruction of popular demonstrations against the Israeli massacre in Gaza, beating up participants and arresting a number of them. Nassif, in a press release on Saturday, said that such practices only harmed the image of the Palestinian people and ran contrary to national duty that calls for boosting national solidarity.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Report: Abbas to release hundreds of Hamas prisoners
Source in Palestinian organization say PA president announced decision to release prisoners as goodwill gesture to Hamas. PA officials clarify they won't release inmates who may endanger residents, try and carry out terror attacks in Israel
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Bishop refuses to seek personal safety while Gaza attacked
Bishop Alexious of Gaza has refused to leave the besieged and bloody strip despite pressure from many in the church to seek safety, said Archbishop Theodosios of Jerusalem
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Qaradawi: Muslim Ummah is duty-bound to defend Gaza
DOHA , (PIC)--Prominent Muslim scholar Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradawi has affirmed Friday that the Muslim Ummah from Morocco to Indonesia was duty-bound to defend the Gaza Strip, and to protect Muslim lands from the enemies. "Supporting the Palestinian people in Gaza is a religious duty on every Muslim individual according to his capabilities, and no one is exempted from that duty"
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Egypt and the other ‘moderate' Arab states
Egypt strangles Gaza Strip, derails int'l assistance to starving Palestinians
(4 Jan)Palestinian officials have affirmed Saturday that tens of tons of Arab and international aid allocated to Gaza Strip were stocked in the Egyptian city of Al-Areesh .
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Egyptians protest for Gaza-"Mubarak! You bring us shame!"
VIDEO- Many thousands of Egyptians in Arish, N Sinai, take to the streets, protesting Israel's assaults on Gaza, chanting: "Hosni Mubarak.. You bring us shame!"
http://leninology.blogspot.
Crackdown on pro-Gaza protestors in Egypt
Most of our photographers have been assaulted today, and had their memory cards confiscated.. Some rushed back to the office, and got new memory cards and are now back in the streets… We are also receiving news of a renewed crackdown in Alexandria …
http://arabist.net/arabawy/
Egypt: UN Security Council has failed to stop bloodshed
(4 Jan) Egypt accused the UN Security Council of failing to do its duty by refusing to take a stance on the Israeli airstrikes on Gaza . Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu Al-Gheit said in an interview with the Egyptian TV that no one should have allowed the Israeli operation go on for so long.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
On collaboration and resistance of the oppressed
(3 Jan) By Ziyaad Lunat …European settler colonialists established the state of Israel through a pre-mediated campaign of ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinian population. Despite divisions amongst Arab governments and self-interested manipulation of the Palestinian plight, the response was that of opposition and generally in line with the feelings of the Arab masses. As a result, western governments have sought for decades to bully those governments into submission by forcing them to accept the premise of an inherently racist Jewish state in their midst. As Israel massacres the Palestinians in Gaza once again, one may ask what has happened to this Arab voice.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Why Gaza's message is threatening to some?
(1 Jan) By Abu Al-Sous (Salah Mansour). The Israeli war on Gaza hasn't been only unprecedented in its ferocity, but it has been unprecedented in the support it received from the so called"Moderate" Arab Regimes**as well. In all circles, the Israeli attack was expected but not with this ferocity, however, the open alliance between the "Moderate" Arab Regimes with the Israeli policy makers never been this clear and obvious.
http://www.
Top Saudi Cleric Says pro-Gaza Protests 'Corrupt'
A top Saudi cleric and justice official has branded protests in support of Gaza's Palestinians as corrupt, saying they only serve to foment anger and aggression, a newspaper reported on Saturday.
http://almanar.com.lb/
Attacks Further Split Arab Rulers, People Leaders Assailed Over Censure of Hamas, By Anthony Shadid
Jan. 3--"War on Gaza" was the description the satellite channel al-Jazeera gave for the Israeli ground invasion that began Saturday, a culmination of eight days of bombing that have killed hundreds of Palestinians in the crowded seaside strip. But across the Arab world, the struggle was as noteworthy for what was becoming a war at home.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
world%2Fmideast
Commentary
And there lie the bodies
(4 Jan) By Gideon Levy. As Israel has been preoccupied with Gaza throughout the entire week, nobody has asked whose blood is being spilled and why. Everything is permitted, legitimate and just. The moral voice of restraint, if it ever existed, has been left behind. Even if Israel wiped Gaza off the face of the earth, killing tens of thousands in the process, as a Chechnyan laborer working in Sderot proposed to me, one can assume that there would be no protest. They liquidated Nizar Ghayan? Nobody counts the 20 women and children who lost their lives in the same attack. There was a massacre of dozens of officers during their graduation ceremony from the police academy? Acceptable. Five little sisters? Allowed. Palestinians are dying in hospitals that lack medical equipment? Peanuts.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Top 5 Lies about Israel's Assault on Gaza
Lie #1: Israel is only targeting legitimate military sites and is seeking to protect innocent lives. Israel never targets civilians. The Gaza Strip is one of the most densely populated pieces of property in the world. The presence of militants within a civilian population does not, under international law, deprive that population of their protected status, and hence any assault upon that population under the guise of targeting militants is, in fact, a war crime.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
The Gaza ghetto uprising
(4 Jan) By Joseph Massad. Since 2006, Arab regimes, neoliberal Arab intellectuals, as well as the Palestinian Collaborationist Authority (PCA) in Ramallah have reached an understanding that only Israel will be able to save them from Hizballah and Hamas, both organizations constituting a threat to the open alliance Arab regimes have with the US and Israel against Iran and all progressive forces in the region. These were not closely guarded secret hopes, but strategies that were openly discussed in private meetings, which often spilled into the public realm. The discussions in the Arab media and the declarations made by Israeli officials in the context of the ongoing Israeli massacres of the one and a half million Palestinians in Gaza in the last 10 days have left little to the imagination. A veritable open alliance now exists between the Palestinian Collaborationist Authority, Arab regimes, and Israel with the support of neoliberal Arab intellectuals, wherein Israel is subcontracted to decimate the Hamas government--the only democratically elected government in the entire Arab world.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Major Lesson
Think about it. You need (as I argued in my recent article in Al-Akhbar) to analyze the Arab-Israeli conflict in long terms and intervals. Short-term analysis is meaningless, really. And with that in mind: who can deny this important change in the MILITARY (not only psychological) (im)balance between the two sides: back in 1948 or in 1967 or in 1982 (although there were great and stiff resistance in the refugee camps despite the treachery and incompetence by that Fath leader Yasir `Arafat--when I think of him, i can only think that he is not dead enough, I think of a line of poetry by Khalil Hawi: "Deepen the grave hole, o grave digger. Deepen it" Damn it (Damn it is not part of the verse but I added it for extra effect), the Arab soldier was more scared of the Israeli soldier than vice versa.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Desperate for victories
You think about it. This Zionist state is so desperate for a victory after its humiliation at the hand of resisters in Lebanon--a country with barely an army and with one or two zee planes, zee planes. Today, the entire Zionist nation and its supporters around the world are holding their breath awaiting a victory for the Israeli state against... Gaza--GAZA for potatos sake where there is no army or navy or air force or even a state, and where 80% of the population rely on agencies for their food needs.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Interview with Norman G. Finkelstein
(3 Jan)Finkelstein: It's hard to make any definite judgments about the military situation. The goals of the Israeli government, it seems to me, are pretty clear. Number one , Israel wants to reestablish what it calls its "deterrence capacity." That's a technical term that the Israelis use. It basically means to restore the fear of Israel among the Arabs in the region. After the defeat inflicted by Hezbollah, and the inability of Israel to launch an attack on Iran , it was almost inevitable that they would then target Hamas, because Hamas is also defying the Israeli will. According to the Israeli papers,Barak was planning the attack alreadybefore the last ceasefire, and they were just waiting for a provocation from the Palestinians. On November 4th, the Israelis broke the ceasefire with Hamas, knowing full well--and if you read the Israeli papers, they say so--that if they killed six militants in Gaza , the Palestinians would retaliate, and then Israel would have the pretext to invade. So the first goal was to restore the fear of Israel in the Arab world by inflicting a bloodbath.
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.
Reflections on the Israeli holocaust in Gaza
By Khalid Amayreh. … Gaza committed no crime against Israel . To be sure, the opposite is quite true. Have we forgotten that the bulk of the Gaza victims, who are being annihilated with the Zionist war machine, happen to be refugees and their children and grandchildren uprooted from their towns and villages across the borders inside Israel? In 1948, Israel uprooted them in wave after wave of genocidal ethnic cleansing, and ever since has been trying to liquidate them by bombing their homes, killing their children, bulldozing their farms and lately by trying to starve them to death. And now, the six-decade reign of terror and death is being culminated with an aerial holocaust, all for the purpose of displaying “Jewish power” and “heroism.”!!!
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Living on borrowed time in a stolen land
[many recent photos of the conflict] By Gilad Atzmon.communicating with Israelis may leave one bewildered. Even now when the Israeli Air Force is practicing murder in broad daylight of hundreds of civilians, elderly persons, women and children, the Israeli people manage to convince themselves that they are the real victims in this violent saga. Those who are familiar intimately with Israeli people realise that they are completely uninformed about the roots of the conflict that dominates their lives.
http://palestinethinktank.com/
From Ghetto to Frontier: The Lebanonization of Gaza
By Corey Balsam. Israeli armed forces on 3 January, preparing to enter into the Gaza Strip. If it seems like Israel is treating Gaza much like it has treated Lebanon in the past, that's because it is. Over 400 killed, over 2000 injured in only a couple of days—these are proportions that Israel has historically reserved for foreign entities. But now that Israel claims that Gaza is "no longer occupied," a "foreign entity," and a "hostile" or "enemy entity" there is little stopping Israel from treating Gaza as it has historically treated Lebanon—as a shooting range…Now that Gazans too have become chickens and cats as opposed to real people, there is good reason to fear for the fate of the remaining 1.5 million people trapped in the open air prison that is Gaza.
http://www.alternativenews.
Ken Livingstone: Britain and the EU must move to stop Israel's onslaught against Gaza
(4 Jan) With more than 400 dead and 2,000 seriously injured at the time of writing, it is time that western leaders put real pressure upon Israel to stop its onslaught on Gaza. Instead, the Bush administration in the US is explicitly supporting Israel , EU leaders are dithering and the British government refuses to condemn the disproportionate killing of Palestinians.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Japan expresses ‘deep concern' over Israeli ground invasion of Gaza
(4 Jan) The government expressed concern that Israel entered the area in spite of the international community's calls for a ceasefire. A statement from the Representative office of Japan to the Palestinian Authority (PA) said that while the nation condemns the Israeli attacks, “ Japan deplores the fact that the rocket attacks launched from the Gaza Strip against Israel are continuing.”
http://www.maannews.net/en/
ANALYSIS /International community giving Israel time to weaken Hamas in Gaza
(4 Jan) By Aluf Benn.The international community, headed by the U.S. and Egypt , is giving Israel time to carry out the ground offensive in Gaza , so it will severely damage Hamas' regime. The rationale behind such a move is that a weakened Hamas would improve the chances of achieving a stable agreement in Gaza once the fighting subsides.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Gaza statement a misunderstanding – Czech minister
PRAGUE, Jan 4 (Reuters)-The Czech foreign minister said on Sunday a previous comment by a Czech spokesman that Israel's land assault in the Gaza Strip was "defensive, not offensive" was a misunderstanding. He said the only valid EU presidency position was a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry late on Saturday which called for a ceasefire and facilitation of humanitarian aid.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/
How the pro-Israel lobby in Britain benefits from a generous London tycoon
(4 Jan) By Rajeev Syal.Britain's most active pro-Israeli lobbying organisation-which flies journalists to Israel on fact-finding trips and organises access to senior government figures-has received nearly £1.4m in two years from a billionaire donor whose father made a fortune manufacturing arms in Israel.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Palestinians Are Bad Propagandists
With a monopoly of the air, and unlimited access to the latest US military hardware, Israel will always dominate violent means of 'resolving' the Mid-East conflict. So why do Palestinians continue to turn to this futile means of reacting to Israeli actions? Continue, even after it adds more to the humiliating concessions that pile up by the day? It is because the Arab-speaking and other Muslim countries are even more out-played by Zionists in the war of words.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
or Israelis are…Learn to speak English
Esti Appelbaum-Polani explains why Israel is losing the battle for international public opinion
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Shut down Al Jazeera
(3 Jan) By Mordechai Kedar – Western media rules, which we try to adhere to, aim to ensure that news consumers views reality and understand it the way it really is via media outlets. [Kedar must live in an alternate universe] The agenda or ideology of a media outlet is not supposed to affect the credibility of reports and facts…However, the al-Jazeera network is something else entirely. Al-Jazeera features no balance, as for every minute of airtime featuring an Israeli spokesperson presenting Israel 's positions, the network airs long hours of horrific sights from the Palestinian side…
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Taghreed El-Khodary is back (with a chaperone)
So she is back along with Kershner. She starts her piece with this: "Israeli warplanes pounded Hamas targets in Gaza ." So right at the outset, she wants to tell the readers that Israel only bombs Hamas "targets." Now El-Khodary has two missions at the New York Times: 1) to follow the plight of the Israeli collaborators who are dear to the hearts of her editors; 2) to find evidence of hostility to Hamas. Here, she only reports that she detected "at least a temporary increase in popular sympathy for Hamas." But how does she know that it is temporary unless she sees into the future?
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
US thwarts Libyan push for Gaza truce demand at UN
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 3 (Reuters)-The United States thwarted an effort by Libya on Sunday to persuade the U.N. Security Council to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza after Israel launched a ground invasion, diplomats said.
http://www.alertnet.org/
Hamas: UN Security Council complicit with Israeli massacre
(4 Jan) The failure of the UN Security Council to condemn the Israeli massacre of Gazans in the Strip shows the international body is a farce and proves the extent of US/Israel/UN collusion over international affairs, said Hamas officials Sunday.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Cheney: Israel didn't seek US okay before Gaza invasion
(4 Jan) United States Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday said that Israel did not seek U.S. clearance or approval before targeting Hamas with a ground invasion into Gaza . Cheney said Israeli leaders probably decided that an air campaign was not enough to take out the rocket-launching sites.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
ZCommentary-Street: Obama-Gaza: No Surprise
In the last week of 2008, Palestinian children in Gaza were blown apart by Israeli bombs and missiles. The air machinery used to kill those children-including American-made F-16s and Blackhawk helicopters-was supplied by the United States .
http://www.zcommunications.
Obama keeps silent on explosive Gaza conflict
AFP-As the clock ticks down to Barack Obama's inauguration, the US president-elect has kept silent on the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict and its latest deadly turn in the Gaza Strip.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/
US Senate leaders say IDF operation in Gaza understandable
(4 Jan, AP) The Senate's leaders are standing solidly behind Israel 's ground operation against Hamas.
Sens. Harry Reid and Dick Durbin-the top two Democrats in the chamber-and Republican leader Sen. Mitch McConnell said Hamas is a terrorist organization which threatens Israel by firing rockets from Gaza into the Jewish state. The senators said Israelis are victims of attacks by Hamas and that Israel is doing everything possible to protect its people. The leaders said Israel 's actions are understandable, and that the US would do the same if terrorists were firing missiles into the US from across America 's borders.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/
Barak to Bloomberg: The residents of New York know what terrorism is
(4 Jan) Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Sunday met with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is in Israel to show solidarity during Operation Cast Lead. "The residents of New York know what terrorism is," Barak said to Bloomberg. "The residents of Israel have known terror and aggression for eight straight years, during which we have shown restraint, but the time has come to take action. We are not eager to go to battle but we will not allow continued Hamas attacks on our civilians."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/
Rocket alert sends New York City's Bloomberg running for cover in Sderot
(4 Jan) New York mayor Michael Bloomberg was hustled to a bomb shelter along with his entourage when a missile warning went off during a visit to the embattled town of Sderot Sunday. Bloomberg flew to Israel Sunday for a daylong trip to express solidarity with Israelis threatened by Hamas rockets and back the strikes against the militant group. Bloomberg, accompanied by Congressman Gary Ackerman, a Democrat from New York , visited the southern Israeli towns of Ashkelon and Sderot, both of which have been targeted by Hamas rockets over the past several weeks, and met with New Yorkers who had immigrated.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Solidarity
Photostory: World demonstrates for Gaza, pt. 2
http://electronicintifada.net/
Anti-Israel Protests over Gaza Continue Worldwide
http://almanar.com.lb/
Israel invades Gaza-emergency protests
http://www.stopwar.org.uk/
"100,000-150,000 Palestinians in Sakhnin, Israel protest Israel's Gaza offensive" (Video)
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.
Boston for Gaza
http://www.kabobfest.com/2009/
Hundreds gather in Ottawa for Palestinian rally
http://www.globaltv.com/
London Demonstrations
http://www.thenational.ae/
Pictures: Massive Gaza protest in London
I can't say an exact figure, but tens of thousands turned out fortoday's protest, more than beating my expectations-more than that, it was a very militant protest, comparable to the response to the invasion of Lebanon .
http://leninology.blogspot.
Arabs residents take off to the streets in Sakhnin Arab town
http://www.imemc.org/article/
1000 pair of shoes on Downing street
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Thousands join march to protest against Israeli action in London
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Protesters across Canada call on Israel to end Gaza assault (AFP)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/
Thousands protest in Australia against Gaza conflict
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/
Solidarity in Istanbul
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Amel Mathlouthi, "Nací en Palestina /Born in Palestine" (Music)
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.
On the other hand:
Pro-Israel rally draws thousands to Paris
(4 Jan, AFP)F rench capital sees 12,000 demonstrators gather in show of support for Israel , Operation Cast Lead. ' Israel is simply fighting for its freedom, the survival of its people," says France 's chief rabbi
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Iraq
Saturday: 8 Iraqis killed, 20 wounded
Excerpt: At leasteight Iraqis were killed and 20 more were wounded during light violence. No Coalition deaths were reported. Meanwhile, more information wasreleased on a New Year's Day shooting incident involving U.S. troops. Also, the father and brother of a suicide bomber who staged an attack in Yusufiya were detained.
http://www.antiwar.com/
Sunday: 25 Iraqis killed, 16 Iranians; 83 wounded
Excerpt: Thousands of Shi'ite pilgrims, many foreign, aremaking their way to Karbala to observe the Ashuraa holiday which culminates in three days. As in the past, troublemakers have taken advantage of the 10-day holiday despite increases in security. Overall, at least25 Iraqis were killed and 51 Iraqis were wounded across Iraq , while approximately16 Iranians were killed and 32 more were wounded at an important shrine in Baghdad . No Coalition deaths were reported. Meanwhile, outgoing U.S. Vice President Cheneysaid that the U.S. is close to achieving its aims in Iraq , and U.S. forces handed over authority of a security group in Diyala to the Iraqis.
http://www.antiwar.com/
US: Soldiers shoot, wound woman in Baghdad
AP-American soldiers shot and wounded a woman identified by an Iraqi television station as one of its producers after she failed to heed warnings to stop near a Baghdad checkpoint recently targeted by suicide and car bombs, Iraqi and U.S. military officials said Saturday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/
Former Iraqi Prime Minister: Bush An "Utter Failure"
Former U.S.-installed Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi has denounced the policies of President George W. Bush as an "utter failure" that gave rise to the sectarian venom that ravaged his country. In an interview published on Saturday in the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat, Allawi found fault with American management of Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 as well as the government of present Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
www.TheHeadlines.org
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