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"
“The UNRWA headquarters are in the al-Rimal district in the center of Gaza City. The location is well known to the Israeli authorities as is the fact that they enjoy UN immunity. The damage is great. Although we do not know the exact extent yet, we have lost many trucks, cars and food aid supplies.” UNRWA spokesman Sami Mushasha explains the damage to the UN headquarters in Gaza City following an Israeli strike there. Read more about Israel bombs UN agency headquarters in Gaza City
BRUSSELS (IPS) - Senior European Union figures have signaled that they could push ahead with plans to strengthen formal ties with Israel, even though more than 1,000 have now been killed by the bombardment of Gaza. Two conflicting statements about EU-Israeli relations were delivered 14 January, as the number of Palestinians, about one-third of them children, killed in Gaza continued to climb. Read more about Thousand deaths do not put off EU
RAMALLAH, occupied West Bank (IPS) - A number of armed attacks have taken place on Israel’s borders with Palestinian territories in the last six days as Arab public anger over the death and destruction wrought on Gaza spills over from massive street demonstrations. Israeli security officials have voiced concern that the Gaza violence could affect Israel’s borders and that Israeli settlers and soldiers in the Palestinian West Bank could be targeted by armed Palestinians. Read more about Anger begins to knock at Israel's borders
The only three Arab parties represented in the Israeli parliament vowed yesterday to fight a decision by the Central Elections Committee to bar them from running in next month’s general election. In an unprecedented move signaling a further breakdown in Jewish-Arab relations inside Israel, all the main Jewish parties voted on Monday for the blanket disqualification. Jonathan Cook reports. Read more about Israel bars Arab parties from election
Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani13 January 2009
CAIRO (IPS) - A week after the unveiling of a Franco-Egyptian ceasefire proposal aimed at stopping the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian resistance faction Hamas and on the face of it Israel, are still discussing the fine print of an agreement. “Details of the proposal remain unclear,” Abdelaziz Shadi, coordinator of Cairo University’s Israeli studies program told IPS. “Both sides are still in the process of studying its terms to determine whose interests it serves.” Read more about Ceasefire moves fading away
Adham KhalilJabaliya refugee camp, Gaza Strip13 January 2009
So far, my own family is okay but I feel shy to speak about my family. I don’t think like that. Everyone in Gaza is my family. We are suffering collectively as we are being punished and forgotten collectively, and we are dying. It is very dangerous here and everywhere in Gaza. By 5pm the streets are empty. Not even one person goes out of their homes in my area. But even in our homes, we are not safe. I swear sometimes I can smell death around us. Adham Khalil writes from the besieged Gaza Strip. Read more about Every second there is a bomb
Laila El-HaddadDurham, United States13 January 2009
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
Since the start of the Israeli offensive on Gaza, Israeli warplanes have been bombing and shelling several locations in the area near our house, very near our house. With each bombardment, we feel our house shake like an earthquake and windows break, not to mention our utter fear and horror. Maha Mehanna writes from the besieged Gaza Strip. Read more about How does one prepare for a war crime?
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
