20…
Israeli strike kills 20 inside UN school: medics
The Age
January 7, 2009
An Israeli strike killed at least 20 people who had taken refuge inside a UN school in the Gaza Strip yesterday, in the third such attack in a day, medics said. The strike hit near a school run by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, in the northern town of Jabaliya, they said. The people inside the building had taken refuge from the fighting. Earlier in the day, two people were killed when an artillery shell slammed into a school in the southern town of Khan Yunis and three people were killed in an air strike on a school in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, medics said. [AFP]
…or maybe 40…
Israeli shelling kills dozens at UN school in Gaza
Chris McGreal and Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem, and Mark Tran
guardian.co.uk
January 6, 2009
The civilian death toll in Gaza increased dramatically today, with reports of more than 40 Palestinians killed after missiles exploded outside a UN school where hundreds of people were sheltering from the continuing Israeli offensive. Two Israeli tank shells struck the school in Jabaliya refugee camp, spraying shrapnel on people inside and outside the building, according to news agency reports. The medical director of the hospital in Jabaliya told the Guardian 41 bodies had been brought in so far and more could be on the way. Reuters journalists filmed bodies scattered on the ground amid pools of blood and torn shoes and clothes. A donkey lay on the ground in its own blood…
Eighty-nine children and 30 women amongst Gaza’s confirmed dead [Press release], Al Mezan, January 5, 2009
Israel’s blonde bombshells and real bombs in Gaza
Yosefa Loshitzky
The Electronic Intifada
January 5, 2009“I reiterate that we will treat the population [of Gaza] with silk gloves”
– Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
I am not sure that most people understand the meaning of the name “Operation Cast Lead” chosen by Israel for its murderous and criminal attack on Gaza. The name is borrowed from a Hebrew nursery rhyme which was (and may still be) very popular among Israeli children in the 1950s. In this song, a father promises to his child a special Hannukah gift: “a cast lead sevivon.” Sevivon, in Hebrew (A dreidel in Yiddish) is a four-sided spinning top, played with during the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah. Somebody, in the Israeli army, who apparently feels nostalgic about his childhood, decided that if Israeli kids would enjoy a sevivon cast from lead there is no reason why Palestinian children would not appreciate it too. After all Operation Cast Lead is not the first (and unfortunately, will not be the last) of Israel’s cruel war games.
The cynicism embedded in the name, selected for what Ari Shavit, one of Israel’s most celebrated commentators, called “an intelligent, impressive operation,” is symptomatic to the cold, meticulous and calculated cruelty with which this attack was “designed,” “executed” and “marketed” to the world. As the perpetrators themselves proudly boast, Operation Cast Lead is not only a great military victory but also a success story of Israeli hasbara (meaning in Hebrew, explanation, but practically referring to misinformation, spin and lies)…
…but it’s not all bad news!
Gaza assault pushes oil back above $50, January 6, 2009: “Israel’s assault on Gaza and Russia’s escalating gas dispute with Ukraine helped Brent crude hit $51.10 a barrel in London, its highest point since the start of December 2008.”
