One of Barack Obama’s first moves as president is to be nomination of Sen. George Mitchell as Middle East envoy. Mitchell headed the 2000 committee to probe the roots of the al-Aqsa Intifada.
A tense calm prevails over Gaza as aid agencies take stock of the massive destruction, with some 4,100 homes destroyed, while on the West Bank “al-Basha’er Army” claimed a shooting attack on an Israeli settler.
Israeli forces began withdrawing from the Gaza Strip following a tentative truce with Hamas. Palestinian factions agreed to honor the ceasefire on the condition that Israeli troops are out of Gaza within a week.
Israeli troops and Hamas gunmen exchanged fire in northern Gaza early Sunday—hours after Israel declared a “unilateral cease-fire.” Hamas says it will continue resistance as long as Israeli troops remain.
The UN General Assembly demanded an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an Arab summit in Qatar called for regional states to break diplomatic ties with Israel, as the death toll in the three-week offensive reached 1,170.
Israeli strikes set a UN aid compound, media buildings and a hospital ablaze as tanks rolled deep into Gaza City and diplomats struggled to find a way to halt the offensive that has now killed 1,075.
Bolivian President Evo Morales announced he is breaking diplomatic ties with Israel in protest against its offensive in Gaza, and that he would seek to have Prime Minister Ehud Olmert charged with “genocide.”
Dozens of Israeli tanks pushed into Gaza City, closing the ring on the city’s center, with air-strikes again targetting a mosque and several other civilian structures—even as Egypt announced that Hamas had accepted Cairo’s ceasefire plan.
Ten activists from the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) blocked the entrance to Israel’s consulate in LA for three hours, with a banner reading “Closed For War Crimes.”
Israeli forces battled Palestinian resistance fighters in Gaza City, while Israeli warplanes bombed Rafah. More rockets from Lebanon meanwhile fell in the Galilee.
On Jan. 6 the Venezuelan foreign ministry announced that it was expelling the Israeli ambassador, Shlomo Cohen, to express solidarity with the “heroic Palestinian people” after Israeli’s Dec. 27 military assault on the Palestinian territory of Gaza. Before the announcement,… Read moreLatin America: Gaza protests continue
Israeli tanks rolled deeper into Gaza City from the northern outskirts Jan. 12, approaching the headquarters of Hamas’ security building. “We are tightening the encirclement of the city,” Brig. Eyal Eisenberg, commander of the Israeli offensive, told a small group… Read moreIsrael tightens grip on Gaza City; calls grow for war crimes probe
