PressTV

9th January

Hamas has announced that its al-Qassam grad rockets have hit a major Israeli airbase near Tel Aviv, which is believed to house nuclear arms

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Co-sponsor and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican said before the vote: “The Israelis … are responding exactly the same way we would.”

The Senator has correctly identified the affinity between Us and Israeli foreign policy

WASHINGTON, Jan 8 (Reuters) – The U.S. Senate voiced strong support on Thursday for Israel’s battle against Hamas militants in Gaza, while urging a ceasefire that would prevent Hamas from launching any more rockets into Israel.

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Gaza, January 8, 2009 (AFP photo/Mahmud Hams)

January 8, 2009, 5:00

The price of living in Gaza

While politicians and diplomats continue to call the shots in the Gaza conflict, it’s ordinary people who suffer – from fear, deprivation and grief.Journalists are not being allowed into Gaza, but RT’s sister Arabic news channel Russiya Al Yaum is there.

According to their report, four people died when Beit-Lahia, a town north of Gaza City, was shelled recently. During a short period of calm which lasted for three hours, numerous casualties were found. Rescuers took them to the northern part of Gaza. Bodies were also found in the eastern part of Gaza. Entire families were found dead under the ruins of houses. Kassam and Grad rockets were fired at Israeli territory in response, according to Russiya Al Yaum.

Meanwhile, Palestinian citizens at the border with Egypt are in a deadlock, the report says:

“They have nowhere to go after receiving letters urging them to leave this territory and warning of upcoming shelling. More than 15% of Rafah City has been razed to the ground. There isn’t a single house left near the border. We know that more than 1,700 houses have been destroyed there as a result of this intifada. The question is what happens to those who live in the centre of Rafah City and where they will go when their houses are destroyed”.

People are trying to escape the shelling to save their lives. “But we also met people who’d prefer to die under the ruins of their own homes,” RT’s sister channel correspondent Saed Suerki said. “We talked to the elderly, children and women. They all said if death is even happening in schools and mosques, then where is there to find rescue? They’d prefer to die in their homes. They said it would be more honourable for them.”

Muhammad Idrees Ahmad

The Electronic Intifada

6 January 2009 

On 29 February last year the BBC’s website reported deputy defense minister Matan Vilnai threatening a “holocaust” on Gaza. Headlined “Israel warns of Gaza ‘holocaust'” the story would undergo nine revisions in the next twelve hours. Before the day was over the headline would read “Gaza militants ‘risking disaster.'” (The story has since been revised again with an exculpatory note added soft-pedaling Vilnai’s comments). An Israeli official threatening “holocaust” may be unpalatable to those who routinely invoke its specter to deflect criticism from the state’s criminal behavior. With the “holocaust” reference redacted, the new headline shifted culpability neatly into the hands of “Gaza militants” instead.

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Ynet

7th January, 2009

Lawmakers in Ecuador on Tuesday condemned Israel’s military offensive in the Gaza Strip and called for a global probe of alleged “crimes against humanity.”

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