Under cover of announcing humanitarian relief for injured Palestinians, it is now emerging that Israel is planning the transfer of tens of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza into Egypt. Evidence of the Israeli transfer plan has been sent to London based Islington Friends of Yibna** [IFY]. Earlier today, Sat 17 Jan 09, IFY received a photo of tents [see attached] outside the main hospital in Egyptian Rafah, near the border with Gaza.
http://palestinethinktank.com/
Attacks, reports and testimonials from Gaza
Gaza - Map of Bombing Intensity & Casualties, Dec. 27 -12 Jan, 2009
http://kharita.wordpress.com/
Al-Mizan center: Israel bombed 67 schools sheltering civilians during 3 weeks
GAZA, (PIC)-- Al-Mizan center for human rights on Saturday reported that Israel, during its three-week military aggression, deliberately bombed 67 schools in the Gaza Strip including 36 schools belonging to UNRWA. In a statement received by the PIC, the center pointed out that Israel bombed several schools turned by UNRWA into shelters for Palestinian families who fled the constant Israeli attacks on civilian areas. The Israeli occupation forces also bombed many UNRWA vans. The statement underlined that Israel deliberately shelled the UN agency headquarters in Gaza city and its food storage depots.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
CEASEFIRE CONTINUES - Troops pull back - Gunboats continue to fire on Gaza shore - Factions split on truce
Gaza – Ma'an – Israeli military boats have continued to fire on Gaza shore despite the two unilaterally declared ceasefires from Israel and Gaza factions.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Palestinian medical sources announced that three Palestinian civilians died on Monday due to wounds they sustained during the military offensive targeting the Gaza Strip.
http://www.imemc.org/article/
100 bodies recovered from under the rubble of evacuated Gaza areas
Palestinian medical teams on Sunday recovered around 100 bodies of Palestinian civilians from under the rubble of houses flattened in the IOF three-week onslaught on the Gaza Strip.
Samouni family members found dead in Gaza rubble
International human rights activists have witnessed the recovery of dead members of the Samouni family. Several bodies of the Samouni family have finally been retrieved, 12 days after an attack by Israeli military forces that led to the death of an unknown number of family members. Red Crescent ambulance crews finally gained access to the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza City on 18 January 2009.
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/
Jan 18: At the Samouni house
The planes are still buzzing overhead, but there have been no explosions near me today. However this supposed ceasefire from Israeli's side since 2am does not seem to have extended to Beit Hanoun, where there was shelling this morning and F16s were attacking. You can see 4 video clips I took during the attacks on the Al Quds hospital and local people, at on the ISM website here, including my medic mates rescuing Jasmeen after she'd seen her sister and dad shot.
http://palsolidarity.org/2009/
Children found with bullets lodged in their head
Doctors operating the only brain-scanning machine at an Egyptian hospital near Gaza have been almost overwhelmed by the number of Palestinian children arriving with bullet wounds to the head.
http://archive.gulfnews.com/
B'Tselem - Suspicion: Soldiers shot and killed man and his son in their home
http://www.btselem.org/
B'Tselem - Suspicion: Soldiers shot Palestinian farmer to death without warning
http://www.btselem.org/
B'Tselem - Testimony: Children bombed while standing in street, Beit Lahiya
http://www.btselem.org/
White phosphorus: "The patient came back smoking"
It's hard to believe it can get worse, but daily it does. Last week, I saw the white phosphorus clouds doctors have written about and condemned. From a tall Gaza City building, the panoramic view showed a spreading stream of poison, on eastern Gaza. The chemical burns deeply, to the bone, experts say. It is considered illegal warfare, not to be used in civilian areas. Eva Bartlett writes from the Gaza Strip.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Women of Gaza: Interview with Islah Jad
Islah Jad: The war situation in Gaza is another episode of a long series of wars and violence against the Palestinian people since their collective expulsion from their homes in 1948 to create and establish the state of Israel to solve what the Zionist Movement called the "Jewish problem." Zionists saw that the solution for the persecution of Jews in Europe is to establish a Jewish Homeland, and a state later on, on Palestinian land. This led to the expulsion of more than one million Palestinians now dispersed all over the globe. In Gaza, the majority of the population are refugees from villages and cities now inside Israel and close to Gaza (Majdal, Askalan, Ramleh, etc.).
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.
Gaza doctor who lost 3 daughters demands explanation from Barak
'Israel's defense minister should just tell me the truth and say that the IDF made a mistake when it shelled my house; I'll accept it,' says Dr. Ezzeldeen Abu al-Aish, adding 'there were no Hamas gunmen inside my building'.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Families flee to school refuges
"I could not leave my house, it's too priceless to me -- it's home! Although I could hear the missiles hitting the house next door, kids in the family were frightened and wouldn't stop crying. Still we managed to hold on until they destroyed our cousin Sadlah Matar Abu Halemeh's causing the death of his nine-member family. All were killed and no one survived -- then we decided to leave!" Eman Mohamed writes from the occupied Gaza Strip.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Gaza voices: 'People still afraid'
As Gazans start to venture out on to the streets again after 22-days of bombardment by the Israeli military, residents share their firsthand experience with Al Jazeera. Motasem Dalloul, a Gaza City resident and freelance journalist "Here in Gaza, the Gazans have not slept for the noise of the helicopters, of the Israeli drones and the artillery shelling. These things were continuous all night and until now. I am now speaking with you while walking on the street and, in order to hear you, I am putting my finger on the other ear in order not to hear the noise of the drones and the helicopters in the skies of Gaza.
http://english.aljazeera.net/
Rafah, a landscape scarred by Israel's war
Even in the darkness, we could see the piles of rubble: one had been the police station, destroyed in the heavy bombing on the first day of Israel's offensive, killing 22 Hamas policemen; another pile accounted for the houses that had been destroyed around Muntasa, a favoured children's play area and park which the Israelis say militants had used for firing rockets – residents deny the claim. The park is no more, a field of smashed masonry and concrete.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
Untold stories lie buried in the rubble
As the guns fell silent in Gaza, the terrible human cost of the three weeks of bloody carnage began to be tallied.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
Respite in Gaza
Late last night, a text message notified us that the Israeli government was very close to declaring that they would stop attacking Gaza for one day. Shortly before midnight, we heard huge explosions, four in a row. Till now, that was the last attack. Israeli drones flew overhead all night long, but residents of Rafah were finally able to get eight hours of sleep uninterrupted by F16s and Apache helicopters attacking them.
http://www.counterpunch.com/
Gazans grapple with scale of death and destruction
After 22 days of devastating Israeli air strikes and shelling, shocked Palestinians emerged onto the rubble-strewn streets of the Gaza Strip on Sunday to collect their dead and inspect their shattered homes. Women sat weeping amid the ruins of their houses, hiding their faces, many too distressed to speak. Others sifted through the debris to gather cherished belongings in plastic bags. One held a necklace. "This is all that's left," she said.
http://www.alertnet.org/
Shocked and Grieving Gazans Find Bodies Under the Rubble of Homes
GAZA — It was a day of digging and bitter discovery. Houses had lost walls, and the dead, after three weeks of war, had lost their faces. Families identified them by their clothes. As the people of Gaza emerged from hiding on Sunday, they confronted, for the first time, the full, sometimes breathtaking extent of the destruction around them wrought by the Israeli military. Bombs had pulverized the Parliament and cabinet buildings, the Ministry of Justice, the main university and the police station, paralyzing Gaza's central nervous system and leaving residents in a state of shock.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/
Health Ministry denies all rumors of Israeli medical clinic
Ramallah - The Palestinian Health Ministry categorically denied media rumors that Israeli forces opened a medical clinic at the Erez crossing to treat Palestinians or transfer them to hospitals within the Green Line. The Gaza Strip remains under the siege of a year and a half which includes a ban on the transfer of medical patients. A statement by the Ministry of Health in the West Bank said that there has been no contact at all in regard to changing the Israeli-imposed medical closure.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.
Israeli retreat
MUST READ: On balance: Evaluation of the Israeli festival of slaughter and butchery in Gaza, by As'ad Abukhalil
From war to war (which is a title of a book by Nadav Safran), that is the context in which we need to evaluate our century-old conflict with Israel. You can't isolate each chapter or war or slaughter and analyze it without the larger context of the conflict. The press conference by the Israeli prime minister and his defense minister was remarkable: less triumphalist than usual, and certainly vague about goals and successes. Now we can evaluate the goals within the context of Israel's declared goals, and within the context of Israel's strategic plan.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Israel 'wants rapid Gaza pullout'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/
Israel to renew Shalit talks with Hamas if Gaza truce holds
Israel wants Egypt to press Hamas on a schedule for a prisoner exchange that would secure the release of kidnapped Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Hamas declares truce, gives Israel one week to leave Gaza
"We announce a ceasefire of our factions in the Gaza Strip and we stress that our demand is the withdrawal of the enemy forces from the Gaza Strip within a week, along with the opening of all the crossings for the entry of humanitarian aid, food and other necessities for our people in the Gaza Strip," the Hamas spokesman said.
http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/
Hamas offers conditional ceasefire
Hamas and several allied Palestinian factions have announced a conditional, one-week ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, giving Israel seven days to pull out of the territory. The move, following a meeting of the factions in Damascus, comes a day after Israel announced a unilateral ceasefire, ending its 22-day offensive in Gaza which has left at least 1,203 Palestinians dead. "We in the Palestinian resistance movements announce a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and demand that enemy forces withdraw in a week and open all the border crossings to permit the entry of humanitarian aid and basic goods," Mousa Abu Marzuk, deputy leader of Hamas's political bureau, said in Damascus on Sunday. Besides Hamas, Palestinian factions at the Damascus meeting included Islamic Jihad, al-Nidal, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and al-Saeqa.
http://english.aljazeera.net/
Ceasefire shows Israel's defeat in Gaza: Iran official
"This (unilateral truce) shows the Zionist (Israel's) regime is no longer capable of pursuing its vicious goals in the besieged area," the official said.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/
'Israel has achieved nothing from this'
The people of Rafah wandered around the rubble of what had been their homes, dazed and distressed by the scale of the destruction. A young man stooped to push a crumpled armchair into a crater below his broken house. Gaza's frontline neighbourhood of Rafah has never seen anything like this. It was the first morning after 22 days of intense bombing, and many have lost everything.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Leaving Gaza, soldiers feel their job is not done, since Gilad Shalit still not free
By yesterday afternoon, many of the Israel Defense Forces soldiers who fought in the Gaza Strip had already left. The IDF bases and training sites in the Negev were full of conscripted soldiers and reservists recovering from two weeks of combat. Some soldiers' parents were quick enough to see their children, whom they hadn't been able to speak to for several days. Many soldiers said they were content with the way the army functioned during Operation Cast Lead, especially compared to the Second Lebanon War - including the massive force used, even though it resulted in many Palestinian civilian deaths. But they also complained that there was some confusion about ending the fighting and expressed frustration over the lack of a deal that would have freed captive soldier Gilad Shalit, who was abducted by Palestinian militants on the Gaza border in June 2006.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
DFLP: Israeli ceasefire proves strength of Brigades; unity behind resisters essential
Olmert's decision to call a unilateral ceasefire shows the endurance of the resistance factions against the Israeli invasion into Gaza, said a Sunday statement from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP). The ceasefire is the result of the "legendary endurance of the Palestinian people in Gaza Strip and the worldwide reaction which has pressured the Israeli government," said the statement. The document affirmed that without an Israeli withdrawal from the Strip than factions would never agree to a ceasefire, and further demand that the borders to the strip remain open for goods and citizens.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Shallah: World failed to check Israeli arrogance but resistance did
The Jihad leader said that despite the fact that his Movement was not participating in the Hamas government in Gaza "we declare that the Hamas government is the legitimately elected government in Gaza". He said that Olmert's statement that the decision was taken in response to an Egyptian request constituted an offense to Egypt because it indicated that.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Hamas may 'even the score' with terror attacks
Intelligence chief tell cabinet Palestinian organization will try to change the picture following Gaza op, possibly using unconventional tactics; Hamas has not disappeared, security leaders emphasize - As retribution for damages it sustained during Operation Cast Lead, "Hamas will try to change the picture Israel painted and even the score by using, among other things, terror attacks," the IDF's Chief of Intelligence Major-General Amos Yadlin said at a cabinet meeting on Sunday. "Hamas sustained a heavy blow… Hundreds of their commanders and operatives were casualties.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
2 hurt as rocket hits Ashdod house
Despite ceasefire declared by Israel, Sunday sees Palestinian gunmen fire at least 15 rockets, three mortar shells from Gaza. Rockets land in Sderot, Kiryat Gat, Ashkelon, Ashdod and western Negev kibbutzim. Man moderately injured, Woman lightly wounded by shrapnel, several people suffers shock, building damaged. One rocket hits henhouse, killing dozens of chickens - Rocket fire continues despite ceasefire: Palestinian gunmen fired at least 15 rockets and three mortar shells into Israel on Sunday.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
'Hezbollah Bridges' fire two projectiles on Sderot
Gaza – Ma'an – The apparently new armed group calling itself the "Hezbollah Brigades" launched two projectiles toward Sderot on Sunday evening, according to a statement. Hezbollah also claimed responsibility for five projectiles launched at an unspecified Israeli target in the south, insisting the attacks were designed to "affirm continued resistance. " [end]
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Arabic articke: Female fighters in Gaza
This is the only reference I saw to female fighters in Gaza. The statement claims that they belong to the "Batallion of Hizbullah" in Gaza.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Hamas' Haniyeh declares 'victory' over Israel
Group's leader in Gaza says IDF offensive was a failure, hails decision to declare ceasefire as 'wise and responsible' - A Hamas leader said on Sunday Israel's three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip was a failure and had not cowed the Palestinians. "The enemy has failed to achieve its goals," Ismail Haniyeh, the top Hamas leader in the territory, said in a speech broadcast on Hamas television. Though he called the war, in which more than 1,300 Gazans and 13 Israelis died, a "popular victory" for Palestinians, Haniyeh said Hamas' decision to declare a truce on Sunday was "wise and responsible".
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Kuwaiti MPs ask their government to invite Hamas to Kuwait summit
KUWAIT, (PIC)-- A number of Kuwaiti parliamentarians asked their government to invite the Hamas Movement to the conference, which would be held on the periphery of the Kuwait economic Arab summit, to discuss the Gaza developments. MP Walid Tabtab'ee was quoted by the press on Saturday as saying that a Hamas representative should be invited to attend the conference as an observer in a bid to unite the Palestinian position. He elaborated that it would be absurd to discuss the situation in Gaza in the absence of Hamas.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
AFP - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday described the violence in Gaza as a "tragedy" and urged the international community not to marginalise Hamas after its war with Israel.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Britain's Brown calls for end to Gaza isolation
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown urged Israel on Sunday to allow aid workers to operate freely in Gaza and to reopen crossings into the coastal strip following its ceasefire announcement.
http://www.alertnet.org/
Can Hamas still walk tall in Gaza's streets?
It was Siam who was reputedly one of the most forceful movers against the rival Fatah faction in the so-called "internal fighting" between the organisations that followed Hamas's election victory in Gaza in 2006. Hamas won that battle, ousting its secular opponents from Gaza and launching the chain of events that led to Israel's assault on its power-base. Now the Hamas hardman is gone. But the organisation's prestige appears to have survived intact, and even emerged enhanced.Across Gaza and the West Bank, the rumblings of discontent have grown as Abbas stood on the sidelines while Israeli artillery has pounded Gaza. "Abbas has no authority to lead the Palestinian people. "The future of Fatah is being tested as never before," said Zakariya Mohammad, a Fatah activist from the West Bank city of Hebron.The majority of Fatah want to join the current battle, while the leadership remains committed to calm. Fatah can seize the golden opportunity now in order to restore its national credibility by engaging. If not, Fatah and the PLO will be pronounced dead within a very short period of time."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Anas Altikriti: Israel believes it has struck a blow against Hamas, but the real casualty of this war is its own moral legitimacy
When a rabbi burns his Israeli passport in protest against the attacks that have killed more than 1,200 Gazans, the vast majority civilians, and injured more than 5,000, and a veteran Jewish Labour MP compares Israeli actions and statements to those of the Nazis, one cannot fail but take notice. When prominent members of Britain's Jewish community make an impassioned appeal to Israel to stop its onslaught against the beleaguered Strip and its people, while another letter signed by dozens of Jewish figures from all corners of British society condemns the Israeli attacks, stating that the images reminded them of the siege of the Warsaw ghettos, it's almost as if a radical narrative shift has been set in motion.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
MP Mansour: Israel destroyed many things in Gaza except the resistance
MP Mona Mansour stated that Israel failed in its war on Gaza because it succeeded only in killing civilians, women and children and in destroying many things except the Palestinian resistance.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Hamas/Fatah and international reactions
Chief Palestinian negotiator: 'memorandum of understanding' further isolates West Bank and Gaza
Dr. Sa'eb Erekat, chief negotiator in the Palestine Liberation Organization, criticized the "memorandum of understanding" reached in Washington between US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. The agreement will increase regional control in more ways than one.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.
Minister of justice: Ex-PA chief no longer represents the Palestinians
Justice minister Mohamed Al-Ghoul said that any actions, decisions or obligations made by former PA chief Mahmoud Abbas, whose term of office expired on 9/1/2009, do not oblige the Palestinian people.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Kurd: Ramallah authority delaying supply of foodstuff to Gaza
The Palestinian government in Gaza has charged the Ramallah authority of detaining consignments of food assistance being shipped to the Gaza Strip in Israeli stores at Awja crossing for ten days.
http://www.palestine-info.co.
Hamas traffic police back on the streets
In Gaza, Hamas traffic police and security men are out in the street as a visible symbol of the Hamas administration's authority. The Israeli military strikes in Gaza have destroyed the compounds of all Hamas security forces and most government buildings.
http://www.
ANALYSIS / Egypt insists on solely managing 'the Palestinian problem'
The ruling party in Egypt issued two unprecedented directives on Sunday. The first to the Information Ministry, instructing it to order the Television and Radio Authority not to broadcast Palestinian national songs and "to make do with low-key songs." The second to the Education Ministry telling it to ban national songs from being played in schools, and to avoid all songs on Pan-Arabism and jihad in the coming days.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Detained Saudi Gaza protestors freed
AFP - Twenty-three people arrested in eastern Saudi Arabia during protests last month against Israel's deadly offensive against Gaza have been freed, a human rights group based in the kingdom said on Sunday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Western diplomats: Israel seeks to control reconstruction of war-torn Gaza
Israel intends to exert control over the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip following its 22-day offensive, and is seeking guarantees that no projects will benefit Hamas, Western diplomats said on Monday.
http://haaretz.com/hasen/
The Collaborators
Egypt's Mubarak: Hamas invited Israeli offensive
Egypt's president accused Hamas on Monday of inviting Israel's three-week offensive against Gaza by not extending their ceasefire when it expired last month.
http://www.alertnet.org/
Saudi king: Arab peace offer won't last forever
Saudi Arabian King Abdullah warned on Monday that a 2002 Arab initiative offering peace with Israel would not remain on the table forever.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Ban urges Arabs to back Abbas in Gaza crisis
Arab League leaders meeting at Kuwait economic summit voice opinions on recent Israel-Hamas conflict. UN chief says Arab unity is crucial, Egypt's Mubarak questions efficiency of violent struggle against Israel, while Syrian president proposes renaming Jewish state 'the terrorist entity'.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
War crimes
Israel fears wave of war crimes lawsuits over Gaza offensive
Israel is preparing for a wave of lawsuits by pro-Palestinian organizations overseas against Israelis involved in the Gaza fighting, claiming they were responsible for war crimes due to the harsh results stemming from the IDF's actions against Palestinian civilians and their property.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Robert Fisk: So, I asked the UN secretary general, isn't it time for a war crimes tribunal?
It's a wrap, a doddle, an Israeli ceasefire just in time for Barack Obama to have a squeaky-clean inauguration with all the world looking at the streets of Washington rather than the rubble of Gaza. Condi and Ms Livni thought their new arms-monitoring agreement – reached without a single Arab being involved – would work. Ban Ki-moon welcomed the unilateral truce. The great and the good gathered for a Sharm el-Sheikh summit. Only Hamas itself was not consulted. Which led, of course, to a few wrinkles in the plan. First, before declaring its own ceasefire, Hamas fired off more rockets at Israel, proving that Israel's primary war aim – to stop the missiles – had failed. Then Cairo shrugged off the deal because no one was going to set up electronic surveillance equipment on Egyptian soil. And not one European leader travelling to the region suggested the survivors might be helped if Israel, the EU and the US ended the food and fuel siege of Gaza.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
Arabs: Israel ammo in Gaza had depleted uranium
Saudi ambassador to Austria expresses 'deep concern regarding information that traces of depleted uranium have found in Palestinian victims'; IAEA urged to launch investigation.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Media bias/propaganda
Forgot to mention
Another failure of Israel was in the Arab media sector. The Israeli-Egyptian-Saudi plan in Gaza clearly had a component that relied on the Saudi media. You look at Saudi media in the first two days and realize that the plan utilized the propaganda outlets of the House of Saud--the allies of Zionism. But even that plan backfired: Al-Arabiyya TV came under attack and had to retract and to change its coverage of Gaza. AlJazeera won the day: that was expected (studies show that at times of crisis AlJazeera becomes THE CHANNEL for the Arabs, and you can look at Alexa studies of the internet sites of both Al-Arabiyya and AlJazeera and see) but one easily say that this crisis led to another re-emergence of AlJazeera. Al-Arabiyya suffered and had to hide Dahlan after the third day.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Israel recruits 'army of bloggers' to combat anti-Zionist Web sites
The Immigrant Absorption Ministry announced on Sunday it was setting up an "army of bloggers," to be made up of Israelis who speak a second language, to represent Israel in "anti-Zionist blogs" in English, French, Spanish and German.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Foreign Press Association: We must report from Gaza
Following publication of Gaza doctor's tragic lose of three daughters, niece in IDF shelling, FPA secretary stresses urgent need for journalists in Strip 'for independent, open reporting'.
Israel prepares post-war battle for public opinion
With this in mind, Israel is reportedly "readying a new offensive — the battle for public opinion." AFP reports Israel has begun compiling information to try to prove that many of the 4,000 residential buildings, 51 government buildings, and 20 mosques it hit during the offensive were legitimate targets used by Hamas militants. At least six Israeli ministers will be "fanning out to different countries to press home Israel's view of the conduct of the war." Welfare Minister Isaac Herzog said Israel is aiming to prevent an 'over-dramatization' of the facts."
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/
Shame on New TV
Any word, any sentence, any article that is vomited by the so-called Khaled Abu Toameh should be read as a propaganda press release by Israeli terrorist army. And notice that when you hear this guy talking, his English is very halting, and the articles don't reflect that. A coincidence, I am sure. But for New TV to reproduce an article by Abu Toameh is plain stupid. I mean, look how he writes: "Upon hearing of Siam's death, several Fatah representatives in the West Bank expressed deep satisfaction, while others openly rejoiced. Fatah-controlled news Web sites published comments from Fatah supporters who went as far as thanking Defense Minister Ehud Barak for ordering the assassination of the top Hamas official." Who told him? Which website? He never ever mentions sources. Also, let me guess: the person who wrote thanks for Defense Minister Ehud Barak was none other than....Khaled Abu Toameh.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
The New York Times
Did you notice this journalistic trend in the New York Times since the Israeli attack on Gaza started? It stopped reporting what Hamas officials have been saying. You don't see references to the rhetoric or propaganda of Hamas, the way we are bombarded by the propaganda of the Israeli terrorists who vomit daily statements and announcements and justifications.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Crocodile Tears
Palestinian historian, Tarif Khalidi, sent me this (I cite with his permission): "The grief shown for the civilian deaths in Gaza by Shimon Peres and the Israeli UN representative, among others, adds a wholly new dimension of significance to the phrase "crocodile tears". It was Ben Gurion who first showed them how to do it in 1948 after the butchery at Dayr Yasin with his tearful telegram of regret to King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan. We must implore the Israelis not to shed any more tears for fear the river of tears might overflow and flood us all. They murder some 500 women and children and maim at least a 1000 more and the world is asked to applaud the delicacy of their grief. THESE are the real obscenities of the Gaza war, a war waged against a population that Israel itself had once turned into refugees and for whose indiscriminate slaughter it is now grieving."
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Anti-Israel hackers attack Web site of Israeli radio station
Anti-Israeli hackers managed to take over the Web site of Radio 102 FM on Sunday. Clicking on one of the Website's tabs brings up a message condemning the war in the Gaza Strip and calling for Israel's destruction.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Spinning Gaza
If Hamas had the propaganda machine that Israel has, well, we might think that the Palestinians in Gaza have a right to defend themselves, that Hamas is actually a national resistance organization, and that the Israeli government is a perpetrator of state terror against civilians.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/
International journalists to arrive in Gaza Tuesday for fact-finding mission; will share findings with UN
Eight international journalists will arrive in Gaza Tuesday, traveling via Egypt, with the mission to fact-find and record first-hand Israeli violations against the people of the Gaza Strip.
http://www.maannews.net/en/
Calls to action/Solidarity
Israel Bombs University Teachers Association in Gaza--Boycott Now!
Occupied Palestine - PACBI learned today from its Steering Committee member, Dr. Haidar Eid, that the headquarters of the University Teachers Association-Palestine, in Gaza, was bombed by the Israeli occupation forces during their indiscriminate, willful destruction campaign in the Tal el-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City on Friday.
http://www.pacbi.org/boycott_news_more.php?id=882_0_1_0_C
Occupied Palestine - PACBI learned today from its Steering Committee member, Dr. Haidar Eid, that the headquarters of the University Teachers Association-Palestine, in Gaza, was bombed by the Israeli occupation forces during their indiscriminate, willful destruction campaign in the Tal el-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City on Friday.
http://www.pacbi.org/boycott_
Hertz withdraws from Israeli airline deal: Free car rental offered to customers who show 'solidarity' with Gaza action
The world's largest car hire firm last night called on the Israeli airline EL AL to withdraw an internet advert which offered free Hertz rental to British passengers who flew to to Israel to show their "solidarity" with the country, The Independent has learnt.
http://www.independent.co.uk/
Starbucks the target of Arab boycott for its growing links to Israel
Across five Arab states a new and closely co-ordinated campaign to boycott American goods is being launched, with Starbucks coffee shops their primary target, but with Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson and Burger King outlets also on the list. In Beirut today, activists will be leafleting outside the city's four Starbucks shops, detailing the pro-Israeli sentiments of its chief executive, Howard Shultz, and claiming he is "an active Zionist".
http://www.independent.co.uk/
Qatar closes Israel trade office, orders staff to leave country
The Qatar News Agency says the head of the Israeli trade office was summoned Sunday morning and given a memorandum containing the decision to close the office, according to the Foreign Ministry.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
I noticed
Lebanese communist groups, led* by the Sidon-based, (the Marxist-Leninist), The Popular Democratic Party, have been orchestrating the daily demonstrations at the US embassy in Awkar in Lebanon. Hizbullah has boycotted all the demonstrations. (Al-Akhbar)
*Several have quibbled with me about the word "led" as many other leftist and communist organizations have participated. But I have been hearing the voice (and seeing the face) of Nazih Hamzah daily on TV.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Amsterdam: Anti-Israel graffiti scrawled on travel agency
Windows of Dutch branch of Israeli tour operator Issta spray-painted with slogans against Jewish state, Gaza operation. Local police reinforce patrols around building.
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Gaza Song - We Will Not Go Down!
http://www.moonofalabama.org/
After pregnant pause, Bono celebrates 'Palestinian dream' at Lincoln Memorial event for Obama
CNN: During U2's performance of "Pride (In the Name of Love)," a tribute to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., frontman Bono referenced the civil rights leader's "I Have a Dream" speech, saying that it was also, "an Irish dream, a European dream, and African dream, an Israeli dream, and a Palestinian dream."
http://www.philipweiss.org/
New demos condemn Gaza war
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/
Timor-Leste Solidarity for the Palestinian People in Gaza
http://jewssansfrontieres.
Graffiti at Tel Aviv University: Barak a murderer
http://www.ynetnews.com/
Today in Solidarity We're All Palestinians: History of Israeli Terror Killings
http://globalresearch.ca/
West Bank/Israel and other news
Summary execution in southern West Bank
During the killing of over 1,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the demonstrations against them the occupation remains in the West Bank. This week a family lost their father in Hebron. Yasser Saqr Ismail Tameizi had his six year old son with him. They were working on their land in Ithna Village, west of the city.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.
News in Brief - Balad and United Arab List-Ta'al appeal to High Court
Balad and United Arab List-Ta'al appealed to the High Court of Justice yesterday against the Central Elections Committee's decision last week to bar them from running in the upcoming Knesset election. The formal arguments to back the parties' appeal will be submitted only today. However, a press release put out by the parties' attorney, Hassan Jabareen, said that disqualifying them would in effect remove all Arab parties from the Knesset, thereby improperly and disproportionately denying an entire population segment its basic right to Knesset representation.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/
Home closure in East Jerusalem
In a measured move the Israeli-controlled Jerusalem municipality sent workers on Monday to close the family home of Abu Ala' Adehim. He was one of two young men involved in an attack on a yeshiva for leaders in the settler movement. Eight Israelis were killed in the West Jerusalem incident of nearly two years ago.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.
Political prisoners suffer medical neglect in the cold, pray for Gaza
Jenin -- Palestinians imprisoned by the Israeli administration number at approximately 11,000. Among them are hundreds of cases of serious medical neglect and more of general illness. The Palestinian Prisoner Society reports this week that the spread of influenza is reaching epidemic proportion. At Huwara Prison in southern Nablus, built on West Bank land as military prisons are, the administration is refusing to allow appropriate treatment or humane quarantine to combat the virus that has spread rapidly among the Palestinians inside.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.
Ramzi Shouhki, checkpoint baby
Jerusalem -- Mirvat Shouhki holds the Israeli-issued blue identification card meaning Jerusalem. Her husband holds green, by which the Israelis mean West Bank. Her new born will soon be issued an identity. Baby Ramzi Shouhki will be deemed 'blue' because he was born in Jerusalem. Mirvat was visiting family in Izzariyeh, an East Jerusalem town cut off by the Wall. "It was late," she told PNN today, her baby just five days old.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.
West Bank Stands Strong Against Increased Repression
For the third week in a row, intense demonstrations were held all across the West Bank on Friday, with thousands of people coming out to protest the Occupation's strategy of annihilation in Gaza. Once again, Occupation forces used brutal tactics to repress the rallies, causing dozens injuries to the protestors.
http://stopthewall.org/
Slow resettlement for Palestinian-Iraqi refugees
The start of 2009 offers little hope to the residents of Al Tanf, a refugee camp on the Syrian-Iraqi border housing over 700 Palestinians who had fled persecution in Iraq. No country has given any concrete pledge to take any of the refugees for resettlement in 2009, leaving them to battle the cold desert weather this winter with more despair than ever. The refugees say that despite visits from foreign delegations, resettlements have been few and far between since the camp opened in May 2006. Jamal, 53, said residents are giving up hope. Originally from Haifa, he moved to Baghdad following Israel's taking over of the city. He said that he and his family fled to Syria in February 2007 after being targeted by militia groups. "We just want to be resettled," he said. "I don't mind where.
http://www.irinnews.org/
Opinion/Op-ed
In the eye of the storm
PROFILE: JOHN GING: John Ging is an ex-Army officer who worked in Rwanda during the genocide and was in the Balkans when ethnic cleansing took place. As one of the UN's main men on the ground in Gaza, he says the current Palestinian situation is the worst he has ever encountered.
http://www.irishtimes.com/
Gaza conflict has cost too many lives, says Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown this morning criticised Israel for using excessive force during its three-week military offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Speaking en route to a humanitarian conference in Egypt, the prime minister demanded that Israel reopen Gaza's crossings and allow humanitarian workers full access to the territory. "We are yet to discover the full scale of the appalling suffering," Brown said on an early morning flight to the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. "But what is already clear is that too many innocent civilians, including hundreds of children, have been killed during the military offensive."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
The End of Al-Qa`idah
Reading some comments on Arabic websites, one thing is clear. The Israeli war on Gaza may be regarded as a watershed in the bloody journey of Al-Qa`idah. For all intents and purposes, it died. And its death was not due to the great tactics or machinations of the Bush administration, but due to its own crimes and callous repugnancy. People were commenting on how irrelevant and obsolete it has become, and the speeches and declarations by its leaders are met everywhere by yawns and curses. The statement by Bin Laden while the people of Gaza were being slaughtered was quite repulsive. As one person wrote: what has this organization done except terrorism against innocent civilians and stigmatization of legitimate resistance and even the image of Islam and Muslims? Having said all that, I do believe that the wars and rhetoric of the Bush administration will be felt for years and decade to come, and they will produce new violent organizations.
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
The Imminent Undoing of Israel
History invariably repeats itself. But in the techno age even history is running at top speed. Socio-economic and cultural changes that generally took centuries to develop and take shape in the past are materializing within decades if not years.
http://www.turkishweekly.net/
The Battle for Gaza Gas Reserves
In 1999 the news came out that there were significant natural gas supplies off the coast of Gaza. Negotiation soon took place between the Palestinian Authority, Israel, British Gas, and a Athens based company. The deal they produced would have given the PA 10% of the profits, though it was to be put in a special trust fund that only the Fatah political party could touch. However that deal was never signed, and in 2006 Hamas was the big winner in legislative elections, and they immediately declared the deal unfair and demanded it be renegotiated. The other parties would not renegotiate.
http://www.zcommunications.
Time for Trial
The brutal and indiscriminate Israeli attacks on the Palestinian population in Gaza during the last weeks have entailed numerous violations of basic norms of international law, such as the principles of proportionality and distinction (between civilians and combatants; and between civilian and military targets). Military acts such as intentionally targeting schools and other civilian facilities are considered violations of international humanitarian law in relation to which the state of Israel bears responsibility – but they also constitute serious crimes under international law (e.g., war crimes and eventually crimes against humanity) in relation to which individuals should stand trial.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: Israel's friends cannot justify this slaughter
The Israeli academic Oren Yiftachel, who has long defended Palestine, has said his country: "Turned Gaza into a massive prison and is choosing to prolong the cycle of state terror and prison resistance that goes with that." In other words, Israel wants to keep the conflict alive. The erstwhile British ambassador, Jeremy Greenstock reminds us that had Israel lifted its blockade of Gaza as was agreed, the Hamas rockets, "would have stopped ... I fear Israel is making a two-state solution more remote. Is that the real political objective of the attack?"
http://www.independent.co.uk/
Israel: In Quest for Illusive Legitimacy
For generations the people of the world have endured the constant barrage of information flowing out of Palestine. The immense suffering and torture of Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli Zionists paints a bleak picture of a defenseless people resisting occupation of their country.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
Gaza's artists under fire
Even before Israel's most recent devastating invasion, the combination of 41 years of Israeli occupation, frequent military incursions and attacks, infighting among Palestinian factions, and a dwindling economy created a difficult, if not impossible, environment to sustain an art scene. Yet, writes The Electronic Intifada contributor Maymanah Farhat, artists in Gaza have continued to create and organize.
http://electronicintifada.net/
Obama should tell Israel to face facts
For a year the Palestinian Authority has negotiated with Israel on a peace settlement, knowing nothing would come of it, says Roula Khalaf.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/
For Fatima in Gaza
It is 48 years ago since I last felt the pain. Woke up then and woke up now in the middle of the night. Had just got my own room. When the pain came I went in to mom and dad and lay down between them. My mother woke up while my father continued sleeping as usual.
http://www.counterpunch.com/
The Pilot Plays Computer Games over Gaza
The book with the title Khirbet Khizeh begins with the words, "True, it all happened a long time ago, but it has haunted me ever since." Already in 1949 Yizhar Smilansky wrote this masterpiece which was just recently translated into English. An early winter morning Israeli soldiers from three companies lie in the outskirts of the small fictive village Khirbet Khizeh. In their binoculars they can from a distance observe what is happening in the village. They see the young and the old in the village preparing themselves for a day's work. They look down at the village that they will soon take over, see the old woman that they will expel, the houses they will demolish, the plantations they will destroy and the well they will blow up.
http://palestinechronicle.com/
The Palestinians, in Israeli officials' own words
http://www.philipweiss.org/mon
Pictures
The White Man congratulates Olmert on the slaughter in Gaza
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/
Iraq
Sunday: 1 US Soldier, 3 Iraqis Killed; 35 Iraqis Wounded
http://www.antiwar.com/
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www.TheHeadlines.org
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