Since the ceasefire was enacted, I have toured throughout Gaza to document some stories and accounts. Although I wrote many articles, I decided to focus on the untold stories of the war: the brutal massacre of thousands of chickens. The Electronic Intifada contributor Sameh A. Habeeb writes from the occupied Gaza Strip. Read more about Were chickens firing rockets? 

Students from at least 17 universities in the United Kingdom have staged sit-ins, as part of an unprecedented increase in British activism in support of the Palestinians. These university “occupations” have been launched to compel administrators to meet demands ranging from official condemnation of the Israeli action to establishing scholarships for Palestinian students to study in the UK. Read more about Surge of direct action at UK universities in support of Palestine 

The Arab peace initiative, adopted by the Arab League at its 2002 summit in Beirut, misses fundamental ingredients that would make the blood of vitality flow through its weak veins. After long years of Arab marketing, repetition and explanations (often very boring), we are still at the starting line. Large segments of Arab public opinion view the initiative with suspicion and doubt, and the Israelis — for reasons beyond my comprehension — want to avoid it as much as possible. Ahmad Hijazi comments for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about A real Arab peace initiative 

It is utterly misleading and dishonest to pretend — as so many now do — that the sum total of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a confrontation over what expired Palestinian Authority President and Israeli puppet Mahmoud Abbas himself referred to as “silly rockets.” To pretend that stopping the supply of rockets will make any difference to the course of a conflict that results from the historic dispossession — the Nakba — of an entire nation, and its replacement with a racist rogue state that has exiled, occupied and massacred the survivors for 61 years is the height of delusion. Hasan Abu Nimah comments. Read more about The shortcut to peace 

Samira Qishta, a mother of 12, rushed to her house in the al-Brazil housing project of Rafah City, right after the Israeli army declared a halt to its attacks on the coastal region on 18 January. “My God, what has happened? was it an earthquake? I cant believe my eyes!” This was Samira’s reaction when she saw her devastated house. The Electronic Intifada correspondent Rami Almeghari reports from the occupied Gaza Strip. Read more about "May God take revenge on those who did this!" 

“Let me tell you about Palestine, the way it used to be,” my grandmother said in Arabic. “The thing I’ll remember most is my childhood in the city of Jaffa. Every day we would go to the beach and play in the sand. It was just one block from our home, the apartment building that my father owned. At night we would sit on the balcony and watch the big ships sail by, listening to them whistle.” Sumia Ibrahim writes from the US. Read more about "Let me tell you about Palestine, the way it used to be" 

DAMASCUS (IRIN) - The start of 2009 offers little hope to the residents of al-Tanf, a refugee camp on the Syrian-Iraqi border housing more than 700 Palestinians who had fled persecution in Iraq. No country has given any concrete pledge to take any of the refugees for resettlement in 2009, leaving them to battle the cold desert weather this winter with more despair than ever. The refugees say that despite visits from foreign delegations, resettlements have been few and far between since the camp opened in May 2006. Read more about Constant displacement for Palestinian-Iraqi refugees 

My uncle, aunt and cousins in Gaza have not showered for more than two weeks now. I make a point of this because Samuel Wurzelbacher, otherwise known as “Joe the Plumber” who was propelled into the limelight for questioning then US President-elect Barack Obama, has become a so-called “war correspondent” in the southern Israeli town of Sderot. Talking to The Guardian from his new beat, he spoke with sympathy about how difficult life must be for Sderot’s residents. “The people of Sderot can’t do normal things day to day, like get soap in their eyes in the shower, for fear a rocket might come in. I’m sure they’re taking quick showers. I know I would.” Dalila Mahdawi comments for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Ignoring the roots of conflict 

18 January 2009: Late last night, a text message notified us that the Israeli government was very close to declaring that they would stop attacking Gaza for one day. Shortly before midnight, we heard huge explosions, four in a row. Till now, that was the last attack. Israeli drones flew overhead all night long, but residents of Rafah were finally able to get eight hours of sleep uninterrupted by F-16s and Apache helicopters attacking them. Kathy Kelly writes from the occupied Gaza Strip. Read more about In Gaza, love is the strongest weapon 

The logic goes as follows: Israel has the right to occupy Palestinian land, lay siege to Palestinian populations in Bantustans surrounded by an apartheid wall, starve the population, cut them off from fuel and electricity, uproot their trees and crops, and launch periodic raids and targeted assassinations against them and their elected leadership, and if this population resists these massive Israeli attacks against their lives and the fabric of their society and Israel responds by slaughtering them en masse, Israel would simply be “defending” itself as it must and should. Joseph Massad comments for EI. Read more about Israel's right to defend itself 

The merciless Israeli bombardment of Gaza has stopped — for now — but the death toll keeps rising as more bodies are pulled from carpet- bombed neighborhoods. Once again, Israel demonstrated that it possesses the power and the lack of moral restraint necessary to commit atrocities against a population of destitute refugees it has caged and starved. Yet paradoxically, it is Israel as a Zionist state, not Palestine or the Palestinian people, that cannot survive this attempted genocide. The Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimah comments. Read more about Why Israel won't survive 

It’s hard to believe it can get worse, but daily it does. Last week, I saw the white phosphorus clouds doctors have written about and condemned. From a tall Gaza City building, the panoramic view showed a spreading stream of poison, on eastern Gaza. The chemical burns deeply, to the bone, experts say. It is considered illegal warfare, not to be used in civilian areas. Eva Bartlett writes from the Gaza Strip. Read more about White phosphorus: "The patient came back smoking" 

Seeing Hedaya slowly regain her smile and her strength is so comforting. At every visit, her beautiful facial features appear more visible and distinct. Um Nayef, her elder sister who accompanied her from Gaza to Cairo, in turn embraces me warmly when I come in and with the Palestinian dialect says ishtanalik, we miss you. I grin and hug her back. We sit down, share a few jokes about Hedaya’s health and exchange hellos with whoever is in the room. Dina Makram-Ebeid writes from Cairo. Read more about Surviving in the "Palestinian Wing" 

Wael Selmi displayed a surprising kindness and welcome — you are welcome any time — given that his life’s work had just been leveled by the invading Israeli army. Even more surprising, given that the brothers’ furniture factory in northern Gaza was destroyed by the Israeli army four years ago, causing $300,000 in damage and losses. They’d had it just two years at the time. Along with that ruined factory, the family owns agricultural land which they cannot access near the Erez crossing. Eva Bartlett writes from the Gaza Strip. Read more about No honeymoons in Gaza 

The brutal and indiscriminate Israeli attacks on the Palestinian population in Gaza during the last weeks have entailed numerous violations of basic norms of international law, such as the principles of proportionality and distinction (between civilians and combatants; and between civilian and military targets). Military acts such as intentionally targeting schools and other civilian facilities are considered violations of international humanitarian law in relation to which the state of Israel bears responsibility. Elna Sondergaard comments for EI. Read more about Time for Israel to be put on trial 

This week the death toll in Gaza passed the 1,000 mark, after three weeks of Israeli air and ground attacks. But surprisingly, no one has reported an even more appalling statistic: that there are some 1.5 million injured Palestinians in Gaza. How is is possible that such an astounding figure could have passed the world’s media by? Jonathan Cook comments. Read more about Israeli assault injures 1.5 million Gazans 

Since last night from about 8pm until a little while ago, there have been heavy battles in Tel al-Hawa. They were hitting from the sea, from the air. Tanks were shooting. There were thick clouds of white phosphorus filling the area and filling up houses. They bombed the Red Crescent building and many cars in the street were destroyed. An apartment near me was hit and burned and one on the other side. A number of tall buildings were hit. All the windows and doors are broken and shattered. There were maybe 10 bombs falling every minute. Read more about It was like "The Day After" 

Israel rejected outright the weak UN Security Council’s “call” for “an immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire.” What the Arab foreign ministers hailed as a triumph for their mission to New York was no more than a fig leaf to cover their failure before their increasingly angry and restive peoples who are ever more boldly denouncing Arab leaders’ inaction or complicity as Israel butchers Palestinians in Gaza. Hasan Abu Nimah comments. Read more about Resolution 1860: fig leaf to Arab failure 

I have a routine of sorts. I monitor the situation back home in Gaza all day — I keep Al Jazeera English on continuously as long as I am home, despite my son’s Yousuf’s nagging to switch to cartoons. He stopped asking several days ago, when, tearful and angry, I told him Gaza is being bombed, that Seedo and Tete (Grandma and Grandpa) are in danger. Laila El-Haddad writes from the US. Read more about The gates of Hell, the window to Heaven 

JERUSALEM (IRIN) - The Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) is concerned that waste water lagoons in the northern Gaza Strip could collapse due to the current fighting between Israel and Hamas. “With Israel’s latest bombardment, there is a real risk that earth retention walls of a number of wastewater lagoons will break, releasing an estimated three million cubic meters of wastewater into the surrounding communities,” said Shaddad Attili, head of the PWA, in a statement on 12 January. Read more about Gaza sewage lagoons could collapse  

Only a tea cup, a broken chair and some spots of blood were left where a short time before five members of the the Abu Jbarah family had been sitting in al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. The Electronic Intifada correspondent Rami Almeghari writes from besieged Gaza. Read more about Targeting a cup of tea in Gaza 

There is no safe place we can go. We cannot communicate with our relatives and friends — networks are down as missiles rain on our homes, mosques and even hospitals. Our life is centered around the burials of those who have died, our martyrs. At night our camp, Jabaliya refugee camp, is a ghost town, with no sounds other than those of Israeli military aircraft. Mohammed Fares Al Majdalawi writes from the besieged Gaza Strip. Read more about Gaza is sinking in a river of blood 

RAFAH, EGYPT (IRIN) - With Israel’s two-week military offensive in Gaza showing no signs of abating, patience is running thin among those waiting to get into the Strip from the Egyptian border town of Rafah, the Palestinians’ only access to the outside world that is not controlled by Israel. Every day, local and foreign doctors, nurses, truck drivers and journalists, among others, wait on the Egyptian side of the border for the opportunity to enter Gaza during the daily three-hour ceasefire. Read more about Tensions running high on the Egypt-Gaza border 

While Israel fervently attempts to terrorize the Palestinians into submission in Gaza, many observers have started to wonder why Hizballah has refrained from stepping in militarily to assist its brothers-in-arms, Hamas. Such musings fail to take account of the constraints on Hizballah’s room for action, as well as the circumstances under which Hizballah would ignore such constraints. The question that should be posed is not so much if Hizballah will act, but when. Amal Saad-Ghorayeb analyzes for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Will Hizballah intervene in the Gaza conflict? 

I heard some people here in Egypt wonder if the Israeli Air Force must be running out of places and people to target. But perhaps the surveillance drones we heard and saw flying over the Rafah border crossing today hunted down more spots on which bombers could fix their cross-hairs. Kathy Kelly writes from al-Arish, Egypt. Read more about Tunnel vision 

Two weeks into the Israeli offensive, many international lawyers are raising their voices to condemn Israeli actions from every perspective, challenging Israeli claims to be acting in lawful self-defense. That is, even before examining the unlawful way Israel has deployed its military might, lawyers assessing the self-defense arguments of Israel have found as many holes as in the Gazan ground: Israeli actions were not taken as a last resort, as a necessary response to attacks. Adri Nieuwhof and Daniel Machover comment for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Abettors of war crimes will be held accountable 

UNITED NATIONS (IPS) - International aid organizations, including the United Nations humanitarian agency in Palestine, are calling for the immediate implementation of the Security Council resolution passed late Thursday demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. “The Council must ensure that the words in the resolution must quickly translate into meaningful change,” said Nicole Widdersheim of Oxfam International. Read more about Israel ignores UN Security Council resolution 

Criticism by international watchdog groups over the increasing death toll in Gaza mounted this week as the first legal actions inside Israel were launched accusing the army of intentionally harming the enclave’s civilian population. The petitions — over attacks on medical personnel and the shelling of United Nations schools in Gaza — follow statements by senior Israeli commanders that they have been using heavy firepower to protect soldiers during their advance on built-up areas. Read more about Criticism of Israel's war crimes mounts 

TEL AVIV (IRIN) - Independent confirmation of the situation in Gaza, particularly in Rafah on the border with Egypt, is difficult as Israel’s ban on journalists entering the Strip remains in place. Telephone lines are overloaded and affected by power cuts. Rafah residents told IRIN by phone that tens of thousands had fled heavy Israeli bombardments, with some seeking refuge at United Nations institutions or at homes of friends and relatives in areas further from the border but still in the south. Read more about Tens of thousands flee Rafah 

BRUSSELS (IPS) - In carefully crafted official statements, diplomats have portrayed the European Union as something of an honest broker in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Yet even though almost all of the people killed over the past fortnight have been Palestinians, some top-ranking leaders in the 27-country bloc have tacitly offered their support for Israel’s bombing and invasion of Gaza. Read more about Claiming impartiality, Europe leans towards Israel 

A good, kind, brave and very funny man was killed on 4 January as he loaded the body of a young civilian killed by the Israeli occupation forces into an ambulance. Emergency medical workers, Arafa Hani Abed al-Dayem (35), and Alaa Ossama Sarhan (21), answered the call to retrieve two friends: Thaer Abed Hammad (19), who was wounded, and his friend Ali (19), who was killed while fleeing shelling by Israeli tanks. Eva Bartlett writes from the besieged Gaza Strip. Read more about I will tell you how Arafa died 

GENEVA (IRIN) - The UN has warned that power networks were down in large parts of the Gaza Strip on 4 January, with hospitals relying on generators. Without power for pumps, 70 percent of Gazans are estimated to be without tap water. Israel has been blocking fuel supplies, and stocks are dwindling, the latest (4 January) report by the UN’s humanitarian coordinator in the occupied Palestinian territories said. Read more about Water, sewage system "collapsing" in Gaza, says official 

My family is from Karatiya village a few kilometers away from the Gaza Strip in what is now called Israel. Karatiya is one of the 450 towns in historical Palestine that were cleansed by Zionist militias in 1948, displacing my family along with hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians. I now live in Maghazi refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, which is currently being bombarded by Israel from tanks along the border, American-manufactured F-16s in the sky, and from the sea. The Electronic Intifada correspondent Rami Almeghari reports from the besieged Gaza Strip. Read more about Scared but steadfast in Gaza 

The crushing of the Gaza Ghetto Uprising and the slaughter of its defenseless population will be relatively an easy task for the giant Israeli military machine and Israel’s sadistic political leadership. It is dealing with the aftermath of a strengthened Palestinian determination to continue to resist Israel that will prove much more difficult for Israel and its Arab allies to deal with. While the thousands of dead and injured Palestinians are the main victims of this latest Israeli terrorist war, the major political loser in all this will be Abbas and his clique of collaborators. Joseph Massad comments for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about The Gaza Ghetto Uprising 

In the haze of dust and smoke from the latest F-16 strike, a family self-evacuates. The dispatcher at the Jabaliya Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) receives call after call from terrified residents fleeing their homes. It’s a new year, a new Nakba, and an old scene; Israel is bombarding Gaza once again and the world is standing idly by, sitting on a fence very different from the electrified border fence encaging Gaza, or the separation wall dividing and ghettoizing the West Bank. Eva Bartlett reports from the besieged Gaza Strip. Read more about "They know no limits now" 

“They have made us gather, they have made us recall past days, they have let us feel a warmth that we have long missed amidst life’s troubles which have become so great. So we say simply and ironically, thanks to the Israelis.” Sahar Ali Shaath and more than 20 other family members were forced to flee their house near the Gaza-Egypt border. The Electronic Intifada correspondent reports one Gaza family’s story of constant displacement. Read more about Family flees Israeli fire once again 

My visit back home to the Galilee coincided with the genocidal Israeli attack on Gaza. The state, through its media and with the help of its academia, broadcasted one unanimous voice — even louder than the one heard during the criminal attack against Lebanon in the summer of 2006. Israel is engulfed once more with righteous fury that translates into destructive policies in the Gaza Strip. This appalling self-justification for the inhumanity and impunity is not just annoying, it is a subject worth dwelling on, if one wants to understand the international immunity for the massacre that rages on in Gaza. Ilan Pappe comments for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Israel's righteous fury and its victims in Gaza 

Bombing governmental institutions in Gaza has nothing to do with isolating Hamas or weakening the resistance. The Israeli intent seems to be to create what US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called “creative anarchy.” Indeed Israel has always wanted to keep Palestinians living a life of disorder. They want chaos to prevail in the Gaza Strip. Dr. Akram Habeeb writes from the besieged Gaza Strip. Read more about "Creative anarchy" in the Gaza Strip 

As I sit and view the reports, photos and live videos streaming in from Gaza I find it impossible to make sense of it all. As a boy growing up in Israel and attending a regular public school, I remember being taught the story of Abraham, the patriarch arguing with God over the decision to destroy the city of Sodom. Miko Peled writes from the US. Read more about For the sake of Gaza's 800,000 children 

There is nothing worse in life than being glued to the TV screen, watching one’s nation being slaughtered on an hourly basis while able to do nothing. There is nothing more painful in this universe than hearing the tears and cries of one’s mother on the phone and be unable to hug her, to wipe her tears or to comfort her with any words or means. Ghada Ageel writes from the UK. Read more about I can't hug my mother in Gaza