Funeral of Palestinian children killed at a United Nations school in Gaza by the Israeli military which is carrying out military operations against the people.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
16:45 Mecca time, 13:45 GMT
Rockets from Lebanon hit Israel
It was still not clear who had fired the rockets into Israel from Lebanon
Several rockets fired from Lebanon have hit northern Israel, Israeli police say.
At least three rockets landed in the town of Nahariya, about 8km south of the Lebanese border, on Thursday causing slight injuries.
The attack was followed by reports of a second missile strike, but officials later said it was a false alarm.
The Israeli military fired mortars into southern Lebanon in response to the initial attack.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but Jacky Rowland, Al Jazeera's correspondent in southern Israel, said analysts were suggesting that the rocket attack could have been carried out by Palestinians in southern Lebanon.
She said the firing of rockets from Lebanon "could mean the opening of a second front" in the war on Gaza which has left at least 700 Palestinians dead.
Military alert
The Israeli military has been on alert in the north since it intensified the Gaza offensive, which it says is aimed at stopping rocket and mortar attacks by Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip.
"We took into account there would be an attempt by Palestinian groups to express solidarity," Shalom Simchon, an Israeli cabinet minister, said.
Lebanon is home to more than 400,000 Palestinian refugees, according to UN figures.
Al Jazeera's James Bays, reporting from northern Israel, said one of the rockets hit a retirement home.
"The residents of the home are very distressed by what has happened," he said. "People here haven't got to the stage they have in the south where many people have left their homes."
Hamas denial
The Palestinian Hamas group, which has been targeted by the ongoing Israeli aerial and ground assault on Gaza, denied it carried out the attack from southern Lebanon.
"Hamas is pursuing its combat inside Palestine and our principle is not to use any other Arab soil to respond to the occupation," Raafat Morra, a Hamas spokesman, told the AFP news agency.
Tarek Mitri, Lebanon's information minister, said the Hezbollah movement, which fought a war with Israel in 2006, had made it clear it was not behind the rocket attack.
"Hezbollah has assured us that they remain committed to stability and Resolution 1701 and that is a euphemism for saying they are not involved," he said, referring the UN Security Council resolution that ended the conflict.
The last time Katyushas were fired from Lebanon was in June 2007. Hezbollah denied responsibility and Israel blamed an unnamed Palestinian group.
Andrea Tenenti, a spokesman for the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, told Al Jazeera it was "taking immediate measures to identify the perpetrators of the attack".
"Additional troops have been deployed on the ground and patrols have been intensified across all our areas of operation to prevent any further incidents," he said.
Conflict warning
On Wednesday, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Lebanon's Hezbollah, warned that "all possibilities" were open against Israel as he gave a speech condemning Israel's offensive in Gaza and voicing support for Hamas.
About 1,200 mostly Lebanese civilians were killed as the Shia Muslim movement fought the Israeli military.
Addressing tens of thousands of supporters via video link at his stronghold in Beirut's suburbs, Nasrallah said: "I say to [Ehud] Olmert [Israel's prime minister], the loser, the vanquished in Lebanon that 'you cannot overcome Hamas or Hezbollah'."
The comments marked the first time he has spoken so openly on the possibility of a renewed conflict with Israel since the war in Gaza began on December 27.
Nasrallah warned that the 2006 conflict would be "but a walk in the park" compared to what awaits Israel if it launches a new offensive on Lebanon.
"We have to act as though all possibilities are real and open [against Israel] and we must always be ready for any eventuality.
"We are ready to sacrifice our souls, our brothers and sisters, our children, our loved ones for what we believe in."
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
Thursday, January 08, 2009
16:48 Mecca time, 13:48 GMT
Israel fires on UN Gaza convoy
Homes, mosques and government buildings have been hit in the Israeli bombardment
At least one Palestinian has been killed after a UN relief agency convoy came under fire from Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, officials say.
The attack took place on Thursday as the lorries travelled to the Erez crossing to pick up supplies that were to have been allowed in during a three-hour ceasefire.
Thursday's pause in the 13-day Israeli offensive to allow humanitarian aid into the strip was scheduled to last from 1pm (11:00 GMT) to 4pm (14:00 GMT).
The Israeli military said that it was checking reports of the incident.
John Ging, the head of the UN relief agency in Gaza, said that the casualties were Palestinian civilian contractors contracted to bring supplies from the crossing points.
"They were co-ordinating their movements with the Israelis, as they always do, only to find themselves being fired at from the ground troops," he told Al Jazeera.
"It has resulted tragically in the death of one and the injury of two others."
Wednesday's three-hour ceasefire allowed beleaguered Gazans and aid workers to recover dead bodies, treat the wounded, and gather much-needed supplies in and around Gaza City.
Rafah bombarded
Earlier on Thursday, thousands of Palestinians fled their homes in the southern Gaza Strip as Israeli forces bombarded Rafah after dropping leaflets to warn local residents about an impending blitz.
Witnesses said that homes, suspected smuggling tunnels and a mosque were hit in the area along the Egyptian border early on Thursday.
The leaflets warned that that the Israeli military "will bomb the area due to its use by terrorists to [dig] tunnels and to stock up" on weapons.
Hundreds of tunnels are believed to cross under the Egyptian border around Rafah allowing Palestinians to smuggle in basic supplies, in short supply due to the Israeli blockade, and weapons.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said the military dropped the flyers "as in the past to avoid civilian casualties".
At least 700 Palestinians, including 219 children, have died in Gaza since Israel began its assault on December 27. More than 3,080 people have also been wounded.
Eight Israeli soldiers and three civilians have died in the same period.
Besieged Gazans
Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from Gaza City, said the flyers would have frightened the civilian population of southern Gaza.
"Israel has cut the northern part of Gaza from the southern part. Those in the southern part wouldn't be able to go to the north seeking refuge and vice versa," he said.
Mohyeldin said there was also another night of heavy bombardment in the north around Gaza City.
"Most of the targets hit throughout the northern part of the territory included mosques and homes that have been previously struck on the previous days of this conflict. Some of the government buildings and police stations that were nearly destroyed are now completely levelled," he said.
The AFP news agency quoted witnesses as saying that dozens of Israeli tanks had entered southern Gaza and were heading towards Rafah.
Fierce fighting was also reported between Palestinian fighters and Israeli soldiers around Khan Yunis.
It was unclear if the latest offensive was the "third stage" of the offensive approved by the Israeli security cabinet on Wednesday.
A senior Israeli defence official said a meeting chaired by Ehud Olmert, the prime minister, had "approved continuing the ground offensive, including a third stage that would broaden it by pushing deeper into populated areas".
'Shocking' incident
The International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) on Thursday accused the Israeli military of not helping wounded Palestinians in an incident in Gaza City that it described as "shocking".
ICRC and Palestinian Red Crescent workers said in a statement that several wounded Palestinians and four weakened children were found alongside 12 dead bodies in houses hit by shelling in Zaytun, less than 100 metres from Israeli positions.
"The ICRC believes that in this instance the Israeli military failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded," it said.
The Red Cross team, including four ambulances, had only gained safe passage from Israeli army to access the neighbourhood on January 7 after trying for four days, the ICRC said.
Meanwhile, Israeli security forces in the occupied West Bank shot dead a Palestinian in a confrontation at a Jewish settlement near Jerusalem, Israeli radio reported.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
Thursday, January 08, 2009
13:10 Mecca time, 10:10 GMT
UN: No fighters in targeted school
John Ging said there were no militants inside the school when it was shelled
The head of the UN agency in Gaza running the school that was attacked by Israel forces has rejected claims that Hamas fighters were inside the converted shelter.
The Israeli military accused Hamas of using civilians sheltering inside the building as "human shields" and said its troops had returned fire after fighters fired mortars at their positions from within al-Fakhora school in the Jabaliya refugee camp.
But John Ging, the director of operations in Gaza for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa), told reporters that he had visited the school during a three-hour lull in the fighting on Wednesday and "was reassured by the management of the school ... that there were no militants in the school".
'No militant activity'
Gazans mourn their dead after UN school bombed
Ging added that these were his "own staff, senior, experienced, long-serving staff".
"I am very confident now that there was no militant activity inside the school nor militants in the school," he said.
He also reiterated a call for an independent investigation into the incident.
War crimes: Key facts
The International Criminal Court says war crimes are defined as the violation of the laws and customs of war.
These include:
-The murder, ill-treatment or deportation of civilian residents of an occupied territory.
-The extensive destruction of cities, towns and villages, and any devastation not justified by military necessity.
"If anybody has evidence to the contrary, then let's bring it forward," Ging said.
The Israeli strike on Tuesday left 43 Palestinians dead and about 100 injured.
At least 700 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and nearly 3,085 wounded since Israel's military offensive began on December 27.
Seven Israeli soldiers and three civilians have died in the same period.
The Israeli army said on Wednesday it stood by its statement issued the day before in which it claimed that mortars had been fired "from within" the school, but then issued another statement later dropping the word "within" to say "mortar fire from" the school.
'Important distinction'
Chris Gunness, a spokesman for Unrwa, said this was "an extremely important distinction because we have been accused of very serious allegations that our premises were being used to fire rockets".
Michel Abdel Massih QC, a London-based international human rights lawyer, also called for an independent investigation.
"If [Israeli] claims are to be tested properly we need an independent tribunal. The International Criminal Court was set up to deal with these issues, so there is a mechanism for the UN security council to refer the case for investigation," he told Al Jazeera.
When asked if Israel would allow such an investigation, Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister, said Israel had already held an "initial investigation" which found that troops had returned fire from the UN building.
Regev accused Hamas, the Palestinian faction that controls the Gaza Strip, of committing a "war crime" by using those sheltering in the UN school as "a human shield".
The incident has provoked strong international condemnation with Ban-Ki-moon, secretary-general of the United Nations, branding both the incident and Hamas rocket attacks as "unacceptable".
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
Thursday, January 08, 2009
06:14 Mecca time, 03:14 GMT
UN 'to convene assembly over Gaza'
Rice said she had urged Israel to accept the Egypt-France proposal
The United Nations is to convene its general assembly for an emergency session to discuss the Israeli offensive in Gaza, following two days of talks at the organisation's security council, Al Jazeera has learnt.
The move comes as members of the security council and Arab ministers are also expected to vote tomorrow on a UN resolution proposed by Libya, correspondents say.
The decision to convene the general assembly is expected to be announced on Thursday by Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, its current president and former foreign minister of Nicaragua, Al Jazeera's Ghida Fakhry said in New York on Wednesday.
Any resolution passed by the 192-member general assembly on the conflict would not be binding but the move would carry political and symbolic weight and provide all nations with a chance to voice their views on the crisis for the record, she adds.
Amid continued diplomatic activity, Egyptian officials said on Wednesday that an Israeli team would travel to Cairo for talks on an Egyptian-French ceasefire initiative but it was not clear if members of the Palestinian group Hamas and the Palestinian Authority would attend.
The Egyptian-French initiative would see an immediate temporary truce to allow aid into Gaza, negotiations and measures to prevent arms smuggling from Egypt into Gaza.
On Wednesday Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, said at the UN that the US considered a ceasefire "necessary" and that she had impressed on Israeli and Arab ministers "the importance of moving [the French-Egyptian] initiative forward".
She reiterated her belief, however, that any ceasefire "will not allow a return to the status quo".
Libya, currently the only Arab nation serving as a non-permanent member of the security council, had been urging council members to back its resolution, while other members of the council had reportedly favoured issuing a non-binding "presidential statement".
But the US had blocked an earlier Libyan draft resolution that Washington and its allies saw as anti-Israel.
Meanwhile the French government had initially said that Israel and the Palestinian Authority had accepted the Egypt-France initiative to end the crisis, but Israel and Hamas have said the proposal was still under discussion.
Initiative
Mark Regev, a spokesman for Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, said on Wednesday regarding the proposal: "We welcome the French-Egyptian initiative. We want to see it succeed," adding that talks would "continue on the basis of that initiative".
"A sustainable calm in the south will be based upon the total absence of hostile fire from Gaza into Israel and an effective arms embargo on Hamas that enjoys international support," he said.
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Beirut, Osama Hamdan, a senior Hamas official, said "the [Hamas] movement is now discussing its stance to the Egyptian initiative, keeping in mind that there are, in principle, a number of reservations on this initiative".
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
Thursday, January 08, 2009
14:44 Mecca time, 11:44 GMT
Other voices in Israel
By Rachel Shabi
"It is very difficult to add a different voice, because the public and media discourse is so monochrome and so militaristic," said Nomika Zion, an Israeli member of Another Voice.
The peace collective, comprising of residents of both Gaza and neighbouring Israeli towns like Sderot, is seeking to present an alternative to the majority of Israeli pro-war opinions that currently dominate the media.
But it is a tough task. Zion, herself from Sderot, recalled one occasion when a colleague was verbally attacked in the middle of a TV interview by a group of passers-by who tried to pull the mike away from him. "I really feel that our democracy is in trouble sometimes," she said. "If you can't raise your voice and say things aloud without being scared that someone will attack you, it is very dangerous for our society."
"If you can't raise your voice and say things aloud without being scared that someone will attack you, it is very dangerous for our society."
Nomika Zion, a member of peace collective Another Voice
Media reports on the Israeli view of the country's war in Gaza converge on the overwhelming public approval for it - polls show over 80 per cent in favour of the attacks.
Israelis who are not supportive of the war face the sort of public derision that Zion describes. But they also face the challenge of deconstructing the government's justification for its deadly assaults on Gaza – a series of key messages that are strongly endorsed in both public and media spheres.
Such messages include assertions that Hamas is a terrorist organisation backed by Iran; Hamas broke the six-month ceasefire that ended a few weeks ago; and that Israel is waging a war of self-defence against Hamas and not against ordinary Gazans.
"Many people in Israel call us traitors and war criminals because we talk about the war while it is still going on," said Teddy Katz of the Israeli peace group, Gush Shalom. "But the truth is that this government ordered a criminal war."
Gush Shalom is one member of a coalition that held a news conference on Wednesday, December 7, 2009, to brief the media on peace camp positions. Some speakers at the news conference focused on what they held to be Israel's real motives for the war - election success and also, according to Katz, sanitising corrupt political reputations is one factor. Others presented alternative voices from Israel's southern region, which has for years been in the line of fire of rockets from Gaza – and which is considered predominantly in favour of the war ostensibly waged to defend it.
"As a mother, it's scary... and I think about the mothers in Gaza and how much more scared they are feeling during this time."
Dr Yeela Raanan, a resident of Moshav Ein-Habsor on the Israeli edge of the Gaza Strip.
"My son is there [serving in Gaza] and my other sons are scared by the bombs falling over our house," said Dr Yeela Raanan, from Moshav Ein-Habsor, a farm community on the Israeli edge of the Gaza strip. "As a mother, it's scary... and I think about the mothers in Gaza and how much more scared they are feeling during this time."
Zion, in Sderot, explains that it is precisely because she has been traumatised by rocket attacks that she has less tolerance for her nation's current militaristic mood. "As a wounded person, I cannot bear this," she said. "I feel there is such a euphoria and glorification of war, as though it's a wedding or a celebration. I can't agree with this attitude. War is a dangerous and traumatic thing and we have to treat it like that."
Mass support for war surfaces in the national media at the start of any assault, says communications expert, Professor Gabriel Weimann at Haifa University, who has researched media coverage across several conflict zones. "During the first week, in every war, the media is very patriotic and rallies round the flag," he said. "Journalists see themselves more as citizens than professionals."
But national media shifts as a war progresses, he added, and this is already beginning to happen in Israel. "You can see a split and cleavages within the Israel public media," he said. "At every junction of the operation, there is potential for disagreements. So, now, after the ground attack began, you see articles about how far Israel should go, if it should stay in Gaza, move into the cities, go after Hamas or negotiate with Hamas."
Analysts say that the fate of the Israeli combat soldiers on the ground in Gaza is the factor most likely to turn public opinion about the war. "The value of a soldier is perceived as greater than the value of a civilian," said Professor Tamara Hermann, co-author of a monthly poll that monitors Israeli public opinion. "The media and public discussion on Israeli soldiers relates to them as children, as sons and not as actual soldiers in tanks and so on. There is an understanding that Israeli soldiers are all our children – so that's why they are so dear to us."
Source: Al Jazeera
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