Isareli Military Action in Gaza | The American Task Force on Palestine

Grief and Rage at Stricken Gaza School
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Taghreed El-Khodary - January 7, 2009 - 1:00am

The bodies of the children who died outside the United Nations school here were laid out in a long row on the ground. Some were wrapped in the vivid green flag of Hamas, some were in white shrouds, and some were in the yellow flag of Fatah, which is rarely seen these days in Hamas-run Gaza. Hundreds of Gazans crowded around, staring at the little faces, some of them with dark eyes still open, but dulled.

Birth Pangs of a New Palestine
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Middle East Report
by Mouin Rabbani - (Opinion) January 7, 2009 - 1:00am

Shortly after 11:30 am on December 27, 2008, at the height of the midday bustle on the first day of the Gazan week and with multitudes of schoolchildren returning home from the morning shift, close to 90 Israeli warplanes launched over 100 tons of explosives at some 100 targets throughout the 139 square miles of the Gaza Strip. Within minutes, the near simultaneous air raids killed more than 225 and wounded at least 700, more than 200 of them critically.

Gaza War Role Is Political Lift for Ex-Premier
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - January 7, 2009 - 1:00am

A few weeks ago, Defense Minister Ehud Barak was considered a dead man walking in Israeli politics. Members of his Labor Party were plotting to replace him after elections on Feb. 10, if not before. Under his leadership, the storied party of David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir had sunk so low in the polls that there was serious talk it might disappear.

Abbas Appeals at UN for End of Israeli ‘Genocide’ in Gaza Strip
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Bloomberg
by Bill Varner - January 6, 2009 - 1:00am

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip is “genocide” and appealed for urgent action by the United Nations Security Council to stop the 11-day assault. “The entire world opinion will accept no less than an urgent intervention by the Security Council to stop the fighting and deter the aggressor,” Abbas said at the UN in New York late today. “This is the message I am bearing.”

Israel Puts Media Clamp on Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Ethan Bronner - January 6, 2009 - 1:00am

Three times in recent days, a small group of foreign correspondents was told to appear at the border crossing to Gaza. The reporters were to be permitted in to cover firsthand the Israeli war on Hamas in keeping with a Supreme Court ruling against the two-month-old Israeli ban on foreign journalists entering Gaza. Each time, they were turned back on security grounds, even as relief workers and other foreign citizens were permitted to cross the border. On Tuesday the reporters were told to not even bother going to the border.

Mideast political conundrum: Settlement expansion is a threat to peace negotiations
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Times
by Ziad Asali - (Opinion) January 6, 2009 - 1:00am

The renewed violence between Israel and Hamas, in which 1.5 million innocent Palestinians are caught, is yet another definitive demonstration that there is no military solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel will not be able to secure its future, normalize its relations with the region and live in peace without an agreement with the Palestinians; Palestinians will not achieve liberation and independence without an agreement with Israel.

Mideast Mediators Seek Anti-Tunnel Plan
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Craig Whitlock - January 6, 2009 - 1:00am

The biggest hurdle to winning a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, according to diplomats and Israeli military officials, is a problem that has bedeviled Israel for years: how to stop Hamas from digging tunnels into Egypt in order to bring tons of rockets and other weaponry into Gaza.

Israeli Strike Hits Refugees Near a U.N. School in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Taghreed El-Khodary, Isabel Kershner - January 6, 2009 - 1:00am

Despite mounting diplomatic pressure to end its offensive in Gaza, Israel’s military onslaught unfolded for an 11th day on Tuesday amid reports that it had struck near a United Nations school, killing at least 30 people among hundreds who had sought refuge from the fighting.

Broker a Gaza cease-fire now
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
(Editorial) January 6, 2009 - 1:00am

In the densely populated Gaza Strip, Hamas is ensconced in houses, schools and mosques, fighting under cover of civilians. Israel, meanwhile, has bombed extensively, sent in ground forces to cut off Gaza City and taken up positions atop apartment buildings, with residents inside. More than 550 Palestinians have been killed and 2,000 wounded since the Israeli offensive began Dec. 27. At least a quarter of the victims are civilians, many of them children.

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