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Over 112 Palestinians Killed in Five-Day Israeli Attack, Mohammed Omer Reports From Gaza

by via Democracy Now
Monday, March 3, 2008 :As Israel pulls ground troops from Gaza, Israeli aircraft continues to carry out bombing raids. On Sunday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas formally suspended contacts with Israel to protest what he called a criminal war on the Palestinian people. We speak with Palestinian journalist Mohammed Omer and Israeli journalist Amira Hass.
Israeli troops have reportedly pulled out of northern Gaza after days of fighting that killed more than 112 Palestinians in the deadliest military assault on Gaza in years. The assault drew worldwide protests for excessive use of force but Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has warned that the withdrawal of troops does not mean Israel"s military operation there is over.

The clashes reached a peak on Saturday, after Israel sent in a regiment of ground troops in an operation dubbed “Hot Winter” that killed 77 Palestinians in two days. According to Gaza health ministry statistics, 22 children were killed. More than 350 people were wounded. Since last week three Israelis have died—one civilian and two soldiers.

Amid the bloody assault, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas suspended peace negotiations and cut off all contacts with Israel.

On Monday, Hamas claimed victory over Israeli forces and mounted a rally in Gaza City. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is due to arrive in the region for talks tomorrow. Meanwhile, a senior Israeli official told Reuters “This very limited (Gaza) operation was intended to show Hamas what could happen, what you may call a "prequel”. He went on to say “If they continue to fire the rockets, then there will be more operations like this one or worse.”

We go now to Gaza to speak with Mohammed Omer, a Palestinian journalist living in the Gaza Strip. He writes for several publications and maintains a blog at RafahToday.org.

We are also joined on the line from Tel Aviv by Amira Hass, a correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and one of Israel"s leading journalists. She has spent much of the last decade living in Palestinian communities of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank

Mohammed Omer, Palestinian journalist living in the Gaza Strip. He writes for several publications and maintains a blog at RafahToday.org

Amira Hass, correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and one of Israel"s leading journalists. She has spent much of the last decade living in Palestinian communities of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank


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§The Gaza genocide
by via the Electronic Intifada
Sunday, March 2, 2008 :We celebrated Yousuf's fourth birthday today. We ate cake. And we counted the bodies. We sang happy birthday. And my mother sobbed. We watched the fighter jets roar voraciously on our television screen, pounding street after street, then heard a train screech outside, and shuddered. Yousuf tore open his presents, and asked my mother to make a paper zanana, a drone, for him with origami; we were torn open from the inside, engulfed by a feeling of impotence and helplessness, fear and anger and grief, despondence and confusion.

"We are dying like chickens" said my husband Yassine last night as we contemplated the media's coverage of the events of the past few days.

Even The Guardian (UK), in a newswire-based piece, mentioned the Palestinian dead, including the children, in the fourth to last paragraph.

In fact, a study by If Americans Knew found that the Associated Press Newswire (AP) coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict significantly distorts reality, essentially over-reporting the number of Israelis killed in the conflict and underreporting the number of Palestinians killed. The study found that AP reported on Israeli children's deaths more often than the deaths occurred, but failed to cover 85 percent of Palestinian children killed. A few years ago, they found that The New York Times was seven times more likely to comment on an Israeli child's death than that of a Palestinian.

Is it only when Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai used the word shoah to describe what will come to Gaza that some media outlets took note

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§Assault on Gaza: Day of grief and defiance
by via UK Independent
Monday, March 3, 2008 : Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, rejected international calls yesterday to end the "excessive" and "disproportionate" military operation in Gaza which has claimed the lives of 101 Palestinians – including many children and other civilians –since Wednesday.

The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, called on Israel to halt the air and ground attacks which on Saturday alone claimed the lives of at least 54 Palestinians in the most lethal single day of violence since the beginning of the second intifada more than seven years ago. The Slovenian EU presidency – while condemning the rocket attacks from Gaza which Israel says it is trying to stop – condemned the "recent disproportionate use of force by the Israel Defence Forces against the Palestinian population of Gaza, noted the death of "innocent children" and said that such acts of "collective punishment" were against international law.

But as the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, announced that he was breaking off US-brokered negotiations with Israel as long as its "aggression" continued, Mr Olmert told the weekly meeting of the Israeli Cabinet: "Israel has no intention of stopping the fight against the terrorist organisations even for a minute." He declared: "With all due respect ... no one has the right to preach morality to Israel for employing its elementary right of self-defence."

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Prime Minister of Turkey, Israel's most important ally in the Muslim world, also decried the "disproportionate force" used in attacks which were killing "children and civilians" and complained that Israel was rejecting a "diplomatic" solution to the conflict.

In Washington, the White House spokesman, Gordon Jondroe, said the violence, which also claimed the lives of two Israeli soldiers on Saturday and a 47-year-old Israeli mature student in a rocket attack on Wednesday, "needs to stop and the talks need to resume". The Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, said he was "deeply concerned" by the Palestinian decision to halt negotiations.

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