The international media continues to complain about the Israeli government’s decision, contrary to their own Supreme Court‘s ruling, not to allow any foreign journalists to enter the Gaza Strip nearly two weeks into their attacks. The Israeli Foreign Ministry, already struggling to deal with all the attacks on civilians and aid workers in Gaza, is [...]
Shortly before Israel was scheduled to start another three hour humanitarian pause in its now nearly two week long attack on the Gaza Strip, an Israeli tank attacked a United Nations aid truck at the Erez border crossing, killing the driver and seriously wounding another aid worker. Following its attack on the aid truck, the [...]
Echoing Pope Benedict XVI’s repeated calls to end the ongoing bloodshed in the Gaza Strip, Vatican Justice and Peace Minister Cardinal Renato Martino urged both the Israeli government and Hamas to show more willingness toward peace talks and for the world to help them come an agreement that would end the ongoing Israeli invasion. He [...]
On the eve of the start of the Cairo talks on a proposed ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, Israeli newspaper Haaretz is reporting that the Israeli government’s three top officials, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are at “loggerheads” over how to proceed. Yet while the article indeed [...]
According to respected London-based Arabic language newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi, the United States deployed troops to the Egypt-Gaza border weeks ago, at Israel’s behest, and the Army Corps of Engineers is currently helping the Israeli military unearth the tunnels used to smuggle both weapons and goods from Sinai into the blockaded strip. Congressman Dennis Kucinich joined [...]
Tomorrow’s Cairo ceasefire talks may well be the best chance at peace the Gaza Strip has seen since Israel began its attacks 12 days ago. But as this afternoon’s brief humanitarian lull gave way to not just renewed, but escalated attacks, the prospects of those talks look weakened. As Israel ratcheted up their attacks in [...]
Talks to settle on the Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip are set to begin tomorrow in Cairo, and Hamas seems quite optimistic. “In the light of all the diplomatic efforts ongoing right now, I am convinced we will succeed in finding a formula agreeable to both sides within 48 hours,” top [...]
UN Relief and Works Agency spokesman Chris Gunness reported this evening that the Israeli army is privately briefing diplomats on the fact that its previous claims about their attack on a UN-run girls’ school in the Gaza Strip, which caused over 100 civilian casualties, were baseless. The attack occurred yesterday, when Israeli mortars deliberately fired [...]
False hope of a quick end to the Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip which has now killed nearly 700 Palestinians came early this morning, when the office of French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared that both the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority had accepted the Egypt-proposed deal for a permanent ceasefire. France quietly retracted [...]
Yesterday, Israeli forces fired three shells at a United Nations school in Jabalya refugee camp, which it knew was being used as shelter for displaced civilian families. The attack killed at least 46 and wounded 55 others, but Israel said the killings were “according to procedures” and blamed Hamas for provoking the attack, claiming it [...]
