Israel has ramped up its attacks on the “sinking ship” (to quote a colleague) that is the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military conducts daily raids both in the West Bank and Gaza – Palestinian territories that continue to be occupied – but since Wednesday, those attacks have intensified to the tune of more than 100 people now left dead in Gaza – 60 killed yesterday alone – with a large number of them incontestably civilian casualties.
Correspondingly, one Israeli citizen was killed on Wednesday by one of the dozens of homemade rockets constantly fired over the border into Israel.
Here’s the latest write I’ve put together.
As more and more world powers are condemning the disproportionate and unlawful use of force, Israel is threatening to expand its offensive.
Jacky Rowland is reporting for Al Jazeera from the besieged strip:
Nour Odeh, meanwhile, reports that Palestinian anger is erupting across the West Bank, with calls for a united front against the Israeli onslaught in a climate now being compared to that of the second Palestinian intifada in 2000.
Israel pins all the trouble – and all the loss of life – on Hamas, the legitimately elected Palestinian group heavily sanctioned by the US & the EU as a terrorist organisation.
Palestinian “rocket men”, meanwhile, won’t cease their mostly psychological attacks on Israel, because “this kind of operation only makes us stronger and more determined,” as one Hamas spokesman put it.
The crude rockets used by armed groups tied to Hamas and other Palestinian organisations were first introduced as part of the second Intifada to retaliate against Israel’s incursions.
• Rachel Corrie Memorial site
• Wikipedia
• The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice
Coinciding with the latest attack on reason in Gaza is the fifth anniversary of the death of Rachel Corrie in the same besieged territory on March 16.
Corrie, a member of the International Solidarity Movement, was crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer trying to demolish a Palestinian house.
As the Guardian reports in both beautiful and painful detail (for me at least), her diary is to be published on the very same day.