Israeli soldiers wore T-shirts with a pregnant woman in cross-hairs and the slogan “1 Shot 2 Kills,” adding to a growing furor in the country over allegations of misconduct by troops during the Gaza war. The smaller they are, the harder it is,” says another shirt showing a child in a rifle sight. Soldiers wore the shirts to mark the end of basic training and other military courses and they were first reported by the Haaretz daily. The military condemned the soldiers involved, but it was not immediately clear how many wore the shirts. They were not manufactured or sanctioned by the military and appear not to have been widely distributed. – From CBS News
In the two months since Israel ended its military assault on Gaza, Palestinians and international rights groups have accused it of excessive force and wanton killing in that operation, but the Israeli military has said it followed high ethical standards and took great care to avoid civilian casualties. Now testimony is emerging from within the ranks of soldiers and officers alleging a permissive attitude toward the killing of civilians and reckless destruction of property that is sure to inflame the domestic and international debate about the army’s conduct in Gaza. On Thursday, the military’s chief advocate general ordered an investigation into a soldier’s account of a sniper killing a woman and her two children who walked too close to a designated no-go area by mistake, and another account of a sharpshooter who killed an elderly woman who came within 100 yards of a commandeered house. – From NY Times
Israel has bombed several targets in the Gaza Strip, witnesses say, hours after the Israeli government vowed a “disproportionate response” to rocket fire from the Palestinian territory. An Israeli security official confirmed the attack, one of which was on an empty police station, on Sunday. – From Al Jazeera English
Israeli aircraft bombed a Hamas security target in the central Gaza Strip on Sunday, the Islamist group said. There were no casualties from the attack that came hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed a “disproportionate” response to rocket and mortar fire from Gaza that injured three Israelis. – From Reuters
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel warned Sunday of “sharp” and “disproportionate” retaliation for continuing rocket fire out of Gaza. “We will not warn the terrorist elements in advance as to how, where and when we will respond, but we will respond,” Olmert said at the start of his weekly cabinet meeting. – International Herald Tribune
School children across Gaza have returned to school following a three-week war that has claimed the lives of nearly 1300 Palestinians, many of them civilians.
The Israeli military came close to acknowledging for the first time yesterday its use of white phosphorus munitions during the war in Gaza, but continued to insist that it did not breach international law. As fresh evidence emerged of Gazan civilians being burned by phosphorus, Avital Leibovich, the army spokeswoman, said its use was “legal according to international law…All the munitions we were using were legal, like the French, American and British armies. We used munitions according to international law. – From Times Online
Israel has admitted – after mounting pressure – that its troops may have used white phosphorus shells in contravention of international law, during its three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip. One of the places most seriously affected by the use of white phosphorus was the main UN compound in Gaza City, which was hit by three shells on 15 January. The same munition was used in a strike on the al-Quds hospital in Gaza City the same day. – From Guardian UK
President Barack Obama sought Wednesday to show an immediate U.S. engagement in the vexing Middle East peace process, calling four allies in the region and weighing in for the first time about the Gaza crisis.
Here’s the latest from the Gaza Strip, as Israel intends to control the reconstruction after its its 22-day strike. They are also seeking guarantees that no U.N. projects will benefit Hamas, and promised a swift withdrawal…
Israel plans to have its troops out of Gaza as soon as possible after the weekend cease-fire that ended three weeks of fighting in the Palestinian territory, Israeli officials said Monday. An Israeli Foreign Ministry official said that the pullout, which already had begun Sunday, could be finished by Tuesday evening. – from CNN
A tenuous ceasefire held Monday in Gaza, where Palestinians dug out from the rubble and Hamas put on a show of defiance vowing to fight on after the Jewish state’s deadliest war on the territory. No air strikes, rockets or fighting was reported by either side for the first time since Israel’s massive assault was launched on December 27. – from AFP
That outrage will only grow as the foreign media finally gains access to Gaza and the true scale of the destruction becomes apparent. The Israeli brand has suffered huge damage, and its leaders are now braced for a wave of war crimes charges. – from TimesOnline
Palestinian doctor Ezzeldeen Abu al-Aish was giving Israel’s Channel 10 his daily account from inside the war zone in Gaza when three of his daughters were killed in an Israeli attack.
Israel has begun a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza, three weeks after launching a full-scale assault against Hamas. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel had achieved its goals and Hamas – which has been firing rockets at Israel – had been defeated. But he said troops would remain in Gaza for now. Hamas said it would not accept one Israeli soldier in Gaza. – From BBC News
Israel has declared a unilateral cease-fire in the fighting in Gaza beginning at 2 a.m. Sunday (7 p.m. ET Saturday), Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said. “Hamas has been dealt a very serious blow,” Olmert said. “We can say that the conditions have been brought about that enable us to say that the aims that we laid down for the operation have been completely achieved.” Yet Israel is prepared to respond if Hamas militants continue fighting in the Palestinian territory, Olmert said. – From CNN
Israel ceased fire in the Gaza Strip on Sunday after declaring victory in its three-week offensive but Hamas guerrillas said the war that has cost 1,200 Palestinian lives would go on. Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak invited European leaders to a hastily-called summit to try to bolster the unilateral truce although Israel had sidestepped Cairo’s efforts to achieve a negotiated end to the hostilities with Hamas. – From Reuters
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has apparently released a new audio message calling for a jihad, or holy war, against Israel for its Gaza campaign. The 22-minute message contains “an invitation” from bin Laden to take part in “jihad to stop the aggression against Gaza.” The audio message was posted on a radical Islamist Web site which has posted other statements from bin Laden in the past. – From CNN
A new audio message purportedly from the al-Qaida leader, Osama bin Laden, has called for all Muslims to launch a holy war to stop the Israeli offensive in Gaza, according to Islamist websites. The recording, which the websites said was by Bin Laden, also condemned Arab governments for preventing their people from acting to “liberate Palestine”. “Our brothers in Palestine, you have suffered a lot … the Muslims sympathise with you in what they see and hear. We, the mujahideen, sympathise with you also,” Reuters reported the speaker as saying in the 22-minute tape titled A Call for Jihad to Stop the Aggression Against Gaza. “We are with you and we will not let you down. Our fate is tied to yours in fighting the crusader-Zionist coalition, in fighting until victory or martyrdom.” – From the Guardian
The fighting continues in the Gaza Strip, as Israel and Hamas exchange missile fire. As Mark Phillips reports, with no plan for a cease fire, the violence in this region could escalate further.
Moti Denino and other residents of Sderot in Israel call themselves the “hill people”, watching attacks unfold between Israel and Gaza from a hillside. WSJ’s Sivan Raviv reports.
At a Gaza hospital, doctors tried to revive a 12-year-old victim of the violence, but their efforts were in vain. Mahmoud died. Recording the tragedy at the hospital was his brother, freelance cameraman Ashraf Mashharawi. Just a short time earlier, Mashharawi had been filming other, less personal images of the war– scenes like incoming missiles and the damage they do. Then, he got a phone call. Mashharawi was told the family home had been hit by a rocket. – from CNN
This is the video, however, read below…
CNN pulled the video — and then there were the following comments around the internets…
I’m no military expert, but I am a doctor, and this video is bullsh-t. The chest compressions that were being performed at the beginning of this video were absolutely, positively fake. The large man in the white coat was NOT performing CPR on that child. He was just sort of tapping on the child’s sternum a little bit with his fingers. You can’t make blood flow like that. Furthermore, there’s no point in doing chest compressions if you’re not also ventilating the patient somehow. In this video, I can’t tell for sure if the patient has an endotracheal tube in place, but you can see that there is nobody bag-ventilating him (a bag is actually hanging by the head of the bed), and there is no ventilator attached to the patient. In a hospital, during a code on a ventilated patient, somebody would probably be bagging the patient during the chest compressions. And they also would have moved the bed away from the wall, so that somebody could get back there to intubate the patient and/or bag him. In short, the “resuscitation scene” at the beginning is fake, and it’s a pretty lame fake at that. – from LGF
Samuel Wurzelbacher, better known as “Joe the Plumber” during the 2008 presidential campaign, says he’ll cover the fighting in Gaza for pjtv.com, a conservative website. (
As violence continues in the streets of Gaza, President-elect Obama has finally spoken out about the conflict. As Chip Reid reports, there are new questions about future U.S. policy towards Israel.
Israeli soldiers wore T-shirts with a pregnant woman in cross-hairs and the slogan “1 Shot 2 Kills,” adding to a growing furor in the country over allegations of misconduct by troops during the Gaza war. The smaller they are, the harder it is,” says another shirt showing a child in a rifle sight. Soldiers wore the shirts to mark the end of basic training and other military courses and they were first reported by the Haaretz daily. The military condemned the soldiers involved, but it was not immediately clear how many wore the shirts. They were not manufactured or sanctioned by the military and appear not to have been widely distributed. – From CBS News
