fuTuRe sHOcK

THE WORSENING ECONOMIC CRISIS has prompted the US Army War College to issue a report urging the use of military troops to contain possible civil unrest throughout America. Entitled, Strategic Shocks in Defense Strategy Development, issued on November 4, 2008, the report argues that the US military must prepare for a “violent domestic dislocation provoked by an economic collapse.” The report was authored by Nathan Freier, an Army lieutenant-colonel and professor at the US War College in Carlyle PA - the Army’s main training institute for prospective senior officers. Freier consigns dissenting Americans to the category of “hostile groups:”

“Civil unrest would force the defense establishment to maintain domestic order. Under certain circumstances this would include use of military force against hostile groups inside the United States.” Preparing to implement martial law, on December 1, 2008, the Pentagon announced its plans to deploy 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 to help state and local officials respond to emergencies. And General Tommy Franks, a former US Commander in Iraq, said in a recent interview, that if another terrorist attack occurs in America, the Constitution would be discarded in favor of a military form of government. This “military form of government” is now being set up by the newly-formed Obama administration. More…

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On the eleventh day of the Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip, two UN schools were bombed by Israeli jets. The schools were housing people who had been displaced from their homes as a result of the conflict, and the Associate Press reports that 37 civilians were killed in the attacks. As the costs of the conflict to civilian populations continues to increase, the Real News spoke to Phyllis Bennis to find out what international law has to say about the events. Phyllis believes that while certain key members of the UN apparatus have spoken out against international law violations, the power structure of the Security Council continues to make definitive action impossible. More…

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The leader of Lebanon’ s militant Shia group Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, has threatened a “new war” against Israel in retaliation for its offensive in the Gaza Strip. In a speech delivered in Beirut on Wednesday, the Lebanese cleric also attacked Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for failing to open the Rafah border crossing. “I say to Israel we are ready for a new war. We are better prepared for any new war than we were in 2006,” said Nasrallah. “We are not afraid of your planes or your threats we and are ready for any scenario.” He singled out Egypt for particular criticism for failing to take any action against Israel’s air and ground attacks that have killed more than 600 people and injured almost 3,000 others.

“I say to Egypt, do you need more than 650 dead before you open the Rafah crossing? Arab countries must remain united with the people of Gaza.” Nasrallah compared the situation in Gaza with the Lebanon war in 2006 and asked all Arab countries not to normalise their relations with Israel. He praised Venezuela’s decision to expel the Israeli ambassador in protest. He also accused the United States of wanting to “eliminate the Palestinian issue completely” and stressed that his movement would continue to support armed resistance against Israel.

“They wanted to destroy us and they did not succeed,” he said. “We are here and we are not afraid of your warplanes. We are ready for any eventuality. If you come to our land you Zionists will realise that the war of July 2006 was a joke compared to what awaits you in any new war against us.” The 2006 Lebanon war was a month-long conflict between Hezbollah paramilitary forces and the Israeli military. The conflict began on 12 July 2006, and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect on 14 August 2006, but formally ended in September 2006 when Israel lifted its naval blockade of Lebanon.
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Osama bin Laden’s top deputy in al Qaeda has released a new tape in which he threatens the United States and vows revenge for the deaths of Palestinians in Gaza. “We will never stop until we avenge the death of all who are killed, injured, widowed and orphaned in Palestine and throughout the Islamic world,” said Ayman al-Zawahiri in a new 10-minute audio recording released today on extreme Islamist Web forums. The message is entitled “The Massacre in Gaza and the Siege of the Traitors”. Zawahiri refers directly to President-elect Barack Obama saying he has partnered with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whom Zawahiri labels as a traitor to Islam. More…

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Fighting intensified on the northern outskirts of Gaza City yesterday as a Hamas leader warned that the Islamists would kill Jewish children anywhere in the world in revenge for Israel’s devastating assault. “They have legitimised the murder of their own children by killing the children of Palestine,” Mahmoud Zahar said in a televised broadcast recorded at a secret location. “They have legitimised the killing of their people all over the world by killing our people.” Mr Zahar made his first appearance since Israel launched its offensive. Dressed in a dark suit, he declared: “Victory is coming, God willing.” Abu Obeida, the leader of Hamas’s military wing, made his first appearance on Gaza television, his face masked in a red and white scarf, to goad Israeli forces massed outside the teeming city of 400,000 people. “We have prepared thousands of brave fighters who are waiting for you in each corner of the street and will welcome you with fire and iron,” he said. More…

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An Iranian military leader is calling for Arab exports of oil to be cut to supporters of Israel. State media in Iran quoted the leader as saying it was the more powerful ways to apply pressure on the rest of the world to end the violence between Israel and Hamas. The top oil producing nation in OPEC is Saudi Arabia, an ally of the United States. Iran is the fourth-largest oil producer in the world. If the oil is cut, it may be reminiscent of the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s, which began in 1973 as a result of the Arab-Israeli war. The price of oil nearly quadrupled at the time and caused inflation throughout the industrialized world. Oil prices are currently around $46 a barrel after dropping more than $100 since hitting a high in July.
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The increasingly violent riots in Greece could be the curtain raiser for a military coup d’etat and the installation of a new government more friendly to U.S. hegemony as a countermeasure to increasing Russian influence over the Balkan state. It wouldn’t be the first time the CIA has assisted in such a venture - they aided the 1967 installation of a U.S. friendly military junta known as the Regime of the Colonels ostensibly to prevent Greece from falling under Soviet control, a fascist cabal which was later overthrown in 1973. The coup was achieved with the active support of such groups as the LOK Special Forces, which was part of Operation Gladio, NATO-controlled black-ops forces that carried out false flag attacks across Europe to eliminate left-wing political organizations. More…

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Hundreds of thousands rally in Turkey against Israel’s actions in Gaza. Demonstrations also in Canada, Australia and US. Demonstrations in Israel’s main regional ally Turkey led swelling Muslim protests Sunday over the ground offensive in Gaza. However, a demonstration in Paris backing Israel attracted several thousand supporters. In Istanbul, organizers claimed as many as 700,000 people had turned out for their protest. Police in Turkey refused to give numbers, but central Istanbul’s sprawling Caglayan square was packed with a sea of protesters. Thousands of Moroccans rallied in the capital Rabat, accusing Arab leaders of having failed the Palestinian people. The demonstrators, about 40,000 according to police estimates, chanted expressions of anger over “the silence of Arab regimes.” Protesters also accused Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak of having “sold Gaza for dollars”.

In Lebanon, thousands demonstrated outside the UN headquarters in Beirut. In Greece, thousands of people marched for the second day running to protest the Israeli action. More than 4,000 people joined protests outside the US embassy and the Israeli embassy in Athens, burning effigies of Bush and President-elect Barack Obama and both the Israeli and US flags. Earlier Sunday hundreds of protesters marched in the northern city of Thessaloniki, burning US and Israeli flags in front of the US consulate. Norwegian police said they had used tear gas to break up a demonstration outside the Israeli embassy in Oslo after the protesters started throwing rocks and eggs at them. Several hundred people took part in the demonstration, according to Norwegian media reports.

A couple dozen pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered outside the Hays-Adam hotel in Washington to greet Obama as he arrived to prepare his transition and meet his wife and daughters, who came a day earlier. In the Canadian city of Montreal, some 5,000 people according to media estimates, braved the bitter cold to march on the Israeli consulate to demand a halt to Israel’s offensive. This demonstration followed several marches Saturday in Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver, which also demanded an end to Israeli attacks on Gaza. In Iraq, some 200 protesters staged a protest in the southern Shiite shrine city of Karbala to condemn Israel and express support for embattled Palestinians. Earlier Sunday, thousands also marched through central Sydney and the southern city of Melbourne in Australia. More…

Israeli military forces have reportedly hacked into a Hamas-run TV station to broadcast propaganda. The hijack of the Al-Aqsa television station last weekend represents the latest phase in a war in cyberspace that has accompanied the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Al-Aqsa is known for featuring allegedly antisemitic childrens’ cartoons as part of its broadcast schedule last year. Instead of the controversial Farfour character, audiences were treated to propaganda clips featuring the gunning down of Hamas’ leadership, accompanied by a message in Arabic that “Time is running out,” Israel’s Channel 10 (via Wired) reports. The cyberattack on Sunday followed earlier propaganda broadcasts and the bombing of Al-Aqsa’s main studio by IDF planes last month.

On Saturday an Al-Aqsa broadcast was interrupted by the image of a ringing phone that was left unanswered, accompanied by an Arabic voiceover that stated “Hamas leaders are hiding and they are leaving you on the front line”. Al-Aqsa radio has also been disrupted by propaganda broadcasts, Wired adds. The conflict online that has accompanied real-world Arab-Israeli hostilities has been far from one-sided. For example, an Israeli domain registration server was hacked last week by a Moroccan hacking crew. Team Evil’s assault on DomainTheNet’s registration system had the effect of redirecting surfers hoping to visit ynetnews.com and Bank Discount to a webpage featuring an anti-Israeli message.
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An Ontario union may ban Israeli academics from teaching or speaking at the province’s universities unless they condemn the current military action in the Gaza Strip, according to the Globe and Mail, sparking a fierce debate. The newspaper says the Ontario arm of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) will introduce the proposal in a meeting next month. It will call for “a ban on Israeli academics doing speaking, teaching or research work at Ontario universities” if they support Israel’s military action. The proposal was drafted after a Dec. 29 attack on an Islamic university in Gaza, which Israel claimed was connected to Hamas. “Attacking an institution of learning is just beyond the pale,” the Globe quoted CUPE Ontario president Sid Ryan as saying. “They deliberately targeted an institution of learning. That’s what the Nazis did.” More…

Israeli warplanes have reportedly overflown southern Lebanon amid speculation that Tel Aviv may be seeking to provoke Hezbollah. The warplanes overflew the Lebanese port city of Sidon on Tuesday morning, a Press TV correspondent reported. Tel Aviv has repeatedly accused Hezbollah of making preparations to attack Israel to avenge the murder of its commander Imad Mughniyeh. Mughniyeh was killed in a car bomb attack in Damascus last year. This comes as Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Hoballah has affirmed that the Lebanese movement has no intention to go to war despite “the recent propaganda against it”. He warned, however, that Hezbollah would defend Lebanon if Israel were to invade his country. Tel Aviv launched a massive onslaught against the Gaza Strip on December 27 and put its army personnel stationed along the Lebanese border on high alert earlier this week.
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The Iranian industry ministry on Monday ordered the suspension of all trading by foreign firms “whose shares could be owned” by Israelis in response to the Israeli assault on Gaza, the ISNA news agency reported on Monday. Following an order by Industry Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian “all distribution and production activities by companies which are suspected of having Zionist shareholders are to be suspended,” the news agency said. The ministry did not identify any of the firms targeted by its directive. It said any suspension would be temporary until a final decision had been made on the firm’s shareholding. On December 31, a branch of Italian clothing retailer Benetton was set on fire in Iran amid angry protests against the Israeli onslaught on Gaza. More…

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Frustrated Reporters Locked Out of Gaza War Zone as Israel Scraps Plan to Allow Foreigners in. Israel scrapped arrangements Monday to allow the first foreign reporters into the Gaza Strip since the military launched its offensive against Palestinian militants, adding to mounting media frustration at being locked out of the war zone. The ban on foreign media, which has been appealed to the Israeli Supreme Court, drew criticism from journalists that Israel is trying to manage the story. Israel asserts that opening border crossings for journalists would endanger staff at the terminals, which have often been targeted by militants.

The Associated Press and some other news organizations have Palestinian reporters, photographers and cameramen based in Gaza. Many media have no reliable source of independent information. “The barring of outside news organizations from Gaza hampers the flow of unbiased information of vital interest to the entire world. Authorities on all sides should work to allow access by journalists in keeping with the aims of press freedom,” said John Daniszewski, the AP’s managing editor for international news. The Israeli government has long banned Israeli journalists from entering Gaza because of fears for their safety, but foreign reporters previously were permitted in, even during times of heavy fighting. Human Rights Watch urged Israel to open Gaza to journalists and human rights monitors to report on the actions of both sides. “Their presence can discourage abuse by warring parties and help save lives,” the New York-based organization said.

Some 350 reporters have descended on Israel since Dec. 27, when the military launched an intense air war aimed at halting rocket fire from Gaza. Those journalists bolstered a permanent foreign press corps of some 900 media personnel and hundreds more Israelis working for foreign companies. “Israel has never restricted media access like this before, and it should be ashamed,” said Ethan Bronner, The New York Times bureau chief in Jerusalem. “It’s betraying the principles by which it claims to live.” More…

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A report on the restrictions faced by the Media on the reporting of Israeli actions inside the Gaza Strip. What have Israel got to hide if what they are doing is what they SAY they are doing?

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Israeli missiles crashed into two U.N. schools today, killing at least 30 people in one school and three more in the other attack as the chaotic fighting became deadlier than ever. The attacks on the schools are certain to heighten international outrage over Israel’s Gaza offensive as well as diplomatic pressure for a cease-fire. The carnage has increased as fighting has edged closer to Gaza’s teeming population centers. Hamas fighters are battling back with suicide attackers, Israeli “friendly fire” was blamed for the death of four troopers and whole families are being killed while huddling in their homes. More than 600 people have died in the 11 days of fighting so far.

The heaviest toll came today when an Israeli missile slammed into a U.N. school in Jabaliya. John Ging, director of U.N. refugee operations in Gaza, said there were at least 30 dead at the school and 55 injured, including five who were critically wounded. Palestinian sources in Gaza, however, told ABC News that more than 40 died in the school rubble. Ging said 350 people had sought refuge in the girls’ school and it was clearly marked as a school. A second U.N. school in Gaza City that housed 400 refugees from the violence was struck during the night. Three people were reportedly killed in that attack. More…

Signs are mounting that the conflict in Gaza is starting to spill over into violence in Europe’s towns and cities, with assaults against Jews and arson attacks on Jewish congregations in France, Sweden and Britain. Assailants rammed a burning car into the gates of a synagogue in Toulouse, in southwest France, on Monday night. A Jewish congregation in Helsingborg, in southern Sweden, also was attacked Monday night by someone who “broke a window and threw in something that was burning,” said police spokesman Leif Nilsson. Neighbors alerted rescue services before the fire took hold.

Someone also started a blaze outside the premises last week. And on Sunday slogans including “murderers … You broke the cease-fire” and “don’t subject Palestine to ethnic cleansing” were daubed on Israel’s embassy in Stockholm. In Denmark, a 27-year-old Dane born in Lebanon of Palestinian parents is alleged to have injured two young Israelis last week, opening fire with a handgun in a shooting that police suspect could be linked to the Gaza crisis. France has Western Europe’s largest Jewish and Muslim communities and a history of anti-Semitic violence flaring when tensions in the Middle East are high. In 2002, some 2,300 Jews left France for Israel because they felt unsafe. More…

The installations in question include Al-Aqsa television, Al-Resalah newspaper and Sawt Al-Aqsa radio, which the Israeli army bombed on December 28 and over the weekend respectively, the Geneva-based Press Emblem Campaign said in a statement, citing a Palestinian media non-governmental group. The press group, which fights for better protection of journalists in conflict zones, also condemned the recent deaths of two journalists as a result of Israeli attacks. “Two Palestinian journalists were killed one in previous attacks by Israel, photographer Hamza Shahin,who died on 26 December 2008, and another during the current military round on 3 January, Omar Silawi. “The current attacks against Palestinian journalists remind the media community of the attacks that were committed by Israel against Lebanese media in the July-August war 2006,” the press group said, referring to the conflict between Israel and Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia. More…

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Frustration is mounting at Egypt’s border with the Gaza Strip, where many local and foreign doctors are stuck after Egyptian authorities denied them entry into the coastal area now under an Israeli ground invasion. Anesthesiologist Dimitrios Mognie from Greece idles his time at a cafe near the border, drinking tea and chatting with other doctors, aid workers and curious Egyptians. “This is a shame,” said Mognie, who decided to use his vacation time to try help Gazans. He thought entering through Egypt, which has a narrow border with the Hamas-ruled strip, was his best bet. “That in 2009 they have people in need of help from a doctor and we can go to help and they won’t let us. This is crazy,” he added. More…

Red Cross warns 500,000 civilians in danger; Israel rejects calls for truce. International Committee of the Red Cross head of operations Pierre Kraehenbuehl said the situation for Palestinian civilians is “extreme and traumatic as a result of 10 days of uninterrupted fighting.” Kraehenbuehl told journalists in Geneva the number of civilians killed or injured is increasing. He said fragile power supplies could collapse at any moment leaving 500,000 people without clean water and at risk of disease. Despite Israeli claims that casualties have been heavy among militants, no injured Hamas fighters were seen Monday by an Associated Press reporter at Shifa Hospital, the Gaza Strip’s largest. Instead, the hospital was overwhelmed with civilians. Bodies were two to a morgue drawer, and the wounded were being treated in hallways because beds were full. At least 20 Palestinian children were killed during the day Monday, said Dr. Moaiya Hassanain, a health official. Most confirmed deaths have been civilians. More…

Five children have been killed in two separate Israeli strikes around Gaza City, according to Palestinian medics. Three children were killed by a tank shell in Zeitun and two were killed in Shati by a naval strike, according to the head of Gaza medical emergency services Moawiya Hassanein. More than 510 Gazans have been killed and some 2,500 have been wounded since the Israeli attacks began. Israel was reported to be using white phosphorous shells to cover the advance of its troops: the munitions are not illegal, but their use has been heavily criticised for causing terrible burns. Hamas fighters took to underground tunnels as Israel advanced - giving them the ability to rise up behind Israeli lines later on. Five civilians died when a market in the city’s centre was hit by a reported Israeli air strike, while another five were killed by a strike on a mosque in the nearby town of Beit Lahiya. More…

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More than 70,000 Iranian students have volunteered to carry out suicide bombings against Israel, according to Iran’s state news agency, but President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has not responded to their request for permission. Volunteer suicide groups have made similar requests in the past and the government has never responded, which suggests that the campaigns are mostly propaganda. According to the official IRNA news agency, hardline student leader Esmaeil Ahmadi said the students want to fight Israel in support of Hamas, Gaza’s Islamic militant rulers.

Iran is Hamas’ main backer, though the country denies sending weapons to the Islamic militant movement that took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007. Iran considers Israel its sworn enemy, and Mr Ahmadinejad has called for the destruction of the Jewish state. Five hard-line student groups and a conservative clerical group launched the registration drive for suicide bombers last week and asked the government to allow them to stage the attacks. The hard-liners started signing up volunteers after Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a religious decree on Dec 28 saying that anyone killed while defending Palestinians in Gaza against Israeli attacks would be considered a martyr. More…

China faces surging protests and riots in 2009 as rising unemployment stokes discontent, a state-run magazine said in a blunt warning of the hazards to Communist Party control from a sharp economic downturn. The unusually stark report in this week’s Outlook (Liaowang) Magazine, issued by the official Xinhua news agency, said faltering growth could spark anger among millions of migrant workers and university graduates left jobless. “Without doubt, now we’re entering a peak period for mass incidents,” a senior Xinhua reporter, Huang Huo, told the magazine, using the official euphemism for riots and protests.

The biggest threats to China’s social fabric will come from graduating university students, facing a shrinking job market and diminished incomes, and from a tide of migrant laborers who have lost their jobs as export-driven factories have shut. Factory closures, sackings and difficulties paying social security had already unleashed a surge of protests, the report said. Officials in provinces that have provided tens of millions of low-paid workers for coastal factories have reported a leap in the number returning to their farm homes without work. State statistical authorities estimated that close to 10 million rural migrant workers had lost their jobs, the magazine said, without specifying when the sackings happened. More…

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Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor in Gaza, tells Sky News that the number of civilians injured and killed in Gaza proves that Israel is deliberately attacking the population.

For the past three decades, Israel has charted a course that invites its own destruction by relying on two risky propositions: first, that it could extend its security perimeter beyond the reach of a devastating missile attack, and second, that it could permanently control the political debate inside its crucial ally, the United States. If Israel continues to engender hatred across the Muslim world – and thus feeds the growth of Islamic extremism – eventually some radical government or group will get hold of a missile or some other means of delivering a payload against Tel Aviv that would wreak mass devastation. In that event, Israel would almost surely turn to its sophisticated nuclear arsenal and launch a massive retaliatory strike. But to what end? Whatever counter-devastation could be delivered, it would not solve the strategic dilemma facing Israel. Indeed, retaliation would likely make matters worse by engendering even a stronger determination among Muslims to eliminate whatever would be left of Israel. The situation might even be beyond the military power of the United States to set right. More…

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Israel says there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza, noting that it has continued to allow supplies into the territory. But the Israeli human rights group Gisha said Israeli airstrikes have left Gaza’s water and sewage system on the verge of collapse. About one-third of the 1.4 million residents are cut off from the water supply and 75 percent of Gaza is currently without electricity, including the territory’s largest hospital, Shifa, the report said. Shifa has backup generators. The Palestinian telephone company Paltel warned that Gaza’s communications network has been extensively damaged by the Israeli strikes and is on the verge of collapse. The company added that three of its technicians had been killed and many injured in the fighting while trying to repair the network.

Adding to the shortages, last week’s bombing further battered Gaza’s infrastructure, making many feel that the situation they thought couldn’t get any worse had done so. “When there was a siege, we kept talking about a catastrophe,” said Hatem Shurrab, 24, of Gaza City. “But then the airstrikes started, and now we don’t even know what word to use. There’s no word in the dictionary that can describe the situation we are in.” More…

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Police have been given the power to hack into personal computers without a court warrant. The Home Office is facing anger and the threat of a legal challenge after granting permission. Ministers are also drawing up plans to allow police across the EU to collect information from computers in Britain. The moves will fuel claims that the Government is presiding over a steady extension of the “surveillance society” threatening personal privacy. Hacking – known as “remote searching” – has been quietly adopted by police across Britain following the development of technology to access computers’ contents at a distance. Police say it is vital for tracking cyber-criminals and paedophiles and is used sparingly but civil liberties groups fear it is about to be vastly expanded. More…

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The French government fears a wave of extreme left-wing terrorism this year with the possible sabotage of key infrastructure, kidnappings of major business figures or even bomb attacks. Secret French government reports, seen by the Observer, describe an “elevated threat” from an “international European network … with a strong presence in France” after the radicalisation of “a new generation of activists” in recent years. Senior analysts and experts linked to the government have drawn parallels with the Action Directe group, which carried out 50 or more attacks in the early 1980s. Others cite the example of the Baader-Meinhof gang.

A report by the French domestic intelligence service talks of “a rebirth of the violent extreme left” across Europe that is likely to be aggravated by the effects of the economic crisis. Other secret documents expose alleged links with activists in Italy, Greece, Germany and the UK. “It has been growing for three or four years now and the violence is getting closer and closer to real terrorism,” said Eric Dénécé, director of the French centre of intelligence research and a former Defence Ministry consultant. While some believe such claims to be scaremongering, the present political atmosphere is tense, with many among right-wing President Nicolas Sarkozy’s aides fearing a repeat of the violence in Athens last month, when angry and alienated young people and a hard core of violent left-wing extremists rioted for several days, causing significant damage and bringing the city to a halt.

Last week hundreds of fly-posters around Paris called on young people “forced to work for a world that poisons us” to follow the example of their Greek counterparts. “The insurrection goes on. If it takes hold everywhere, no one can stop it,” the posters said. The recent intelligence reports have blamed violent demonstrations against changes in employment law in 2006, often by middle-class young people, for the recruitment of large numbers of new activists. More…

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Israel is believed to be using controversial white phosphorus shells, whose use is banned under the Geneva conventions as an offensive weapon against civilians, but its use as a smokescreen is not prohibited by international law. The weapon, used by British and US forces in Iraq, can cause horrific burns…Burning blobs of phosphorus would cause severe injuries to anyone caught beneath them and force would-be snipers or operators of remote-controlled booby traps to take cover. Israel admitted using white phosphorus during its 2006 war with Lebanon. The use of the weapon in the Gaza Strip, one of the world’s mostly densely population areas, is likely to ignite yet more controversy over Israel’s offensive, in which more than 2,300 Palestinians have been wounded, the paper reported. The Geneva Treaty of 1980 stipulates that white phosphorus should not be used as a weapon of war in civilian areas…. More

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A paramedic working for an Oxfam-funded organisation was killed today after an ambulance was hit by an Israeli-fired shell, the charity said. The Palestinian, working for the Union of Health Work Committees, was killed in Gaza. Another paramedic lost his foot and the ambulance driver was injured in the same incident. The paramedic was trying to help evacuate an injured person in the Beit Lahiya area, when the shell struck the ambulance, Oxfam said. The UN estimates over 100 civilians have been killed in Gaza over the past week although some other organisations believe the civilian death toll is significantly higher.

John Prideaux-Brune, Oxfam’s Country Director for Israel and Palestine, speaking from Jerusalem said: “The incident shows yet again that trying to fight a military campaign in the densely populated streets and alleys of the Gaza Strip will inevitably lead to civilian casualties. “There are no safe areas and Gazans who want to flee the fighting have been prevented from leaving the Strip.” The charity said that the Israeli ground offensive into Gaza is preventing urgently needed supplies of medicine, food, water, and fuel from reaching one and a half million Palestinian women, men and children. Prideaux-Brune added: “Hospitals in Gaza are overflowing with dead and wounded while facing severe shortages of essential medical supplies and spare parts.

“Oxfam and local partners have had to suspend all our work, apart from emergency medical aid. Many of our colleagues in Gaza are trapped in their homes, and in fear of their and their families’ lives. Others, such as the paramedic have lost their lives trying to save others. “The trickle of humanitarian aid that Israel has sometimes allowed in through one border crossing at Kerem Shalom has been completely inadequate to meet the needs of 1.5 million people - 80% of whom are reliant on this aid. “Since the start of the Israeli ground offensive, even that trickle has dried up. An immediate ceasefire is urgently needed to allow essential aid to reach those families who need it.”
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An Israeli human rights group said yesterday it was investigating claims that an apparent surgical strike on a Hamas missile truck in Gaza, which is being publicised by Israel’s armed forces on its website, is a case of mistaken targeting that has left eight civilians dead. Monochrome images of the attack have been repeatedly shown by media (watch video) around the world after being released by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) to demonstrate both the accuracy of their attacks and that Hamas was trying to move and hide rockets. The footage was also posted on the Israeli military’s YouTube site. However, the Israeli-Palestinian B’Tselem group in Gaza has testimony from the owner of the truck, as well as photographs taken at the scene, which appear to suggest that the vehicle was being used to transport gas welding canisters from a metalworking shop. More…

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Egypt on Sunday called for the creation of humanitarian corridors in Gaza to allow food and medicine to be brought in, as Israeli air strikes forced the closure of its Rafah crossing to aid and the wounded. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit sent letters to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the foreign ministers of the Security Council’s five permanent members asking them to consider the proposal, a statement said. “The Egyptian proposal is aimed at avoiding as much as possible the horrors of military operations,” the statement said.

Israel sent tanks and infantry into Gaza on Saturday, after eight days of air strikes and naval bombardment killed more than 460 Palestinians. Rocket fire by Gaza militants has killed four people in Israel. Egypt shares the Rafah border crossing with Gaza, the only one to bypass Israel, which has been opened only sporadically since the Islamist movement Hamas seized power there in June 2007. More…

Medics tell Press TV they have found traces of depleted uranium in some Gazan residents wounded in Israel’s ground offensive into the strip. Norwegian medics told Press TV correspondent Akram al-Sattari that some of the victims who have been wounded since Israel began its attacks on the Gaza Strip on December 27 have traces of depleted uranium in their bodies. The report comes after Israeli tanks and troops swept across the border into Gaza on Saturday night, opening a ground operation after eight days of intensive attacks by Israeli air and naval forces on the impoverished region.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned on Sunday that the wide-ranging ground offensive in the Gaza Strip would be “full of surprises.” A ground offensive in the densely-populated Gaza is expected to drastically increase the death toll of the civilian population. The latest assaults bring the number of Palestinians killed to over 488 with 2790 others wounded. The UN says that about 25 percent of the casualties were civilian deaths - including at least 34 children. According to Israeli army officials, at least 30 of its soldiers have been wounded since the start of the ground campaign.

Amid global condemnation of the ongoing violence in the region, the UN Security Council failed to agree on a united approach to resolve the crisis. “Once again, the world is watching in dismay the dysfunctionality of the Security Council,” UN General Assembly chief Miguel d’Escoto said Sunday. According to diplomatic sources, the US blocked a Security Council resolution, with US Deputy Ambassador Alejandro Wolff arguing that an official statement that criticizes both Israel and Hamas would not be helpful. The White House has so far declined to comment on whether an Israeli ground incursion into Gaza is a justified measure.
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Ron Paul discusses the invasion of Gaza on January 3, 2009 and its implications for America.

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It is hard to imagine how much worse the situation could get, but the confrontation in Gaza could see a dangerous escalation in the coming days as Iran threatens to break the Israeli blockade and deliver urgently needed medical supplies and other aid to the coastal strip. If the ground offensive currently underway in Gaza becomes a full-fledged occupation with the resultant removal of Hamas from authority, then the arrival of the MV Iran Shahed in the Mediterranean will be something of an anti-climax. Too little, too late. But while even a small stretch of beach remains under Palestinian control, there is the frightening possibility that Iranian Red Crescent volunteers might attempt a landing. There is no denying that what has long been described as a humanitarian crisis in Gaza is rapidly descending into a humanitarian catastrophe. More…

At least 11 Palestinians, including one child, have been killed after Israeli forces struck a mosque during prayers in the town of Beit Lahiya, north of Jabaliya in the Gaza Strip. More than 200 people were inside the the Ibrahim al-Maqadna mosque praying when it was struck. It is not clear yet whether the mosque was hit as part of the Israeli army’s shelling, which started on Saturday afternoon. At least 50 people were wounded, Hamas and medical officials said. The Israeli military has destroyed several mosques during its week-long offensive in Gaza, saying Hamas uses the houses of worship to store weapons.

Ayman Mohyeldin, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza, said: “As much as Israel wants to be surgical in its strikes at the end of the day it is civilians that are being hit. This is proof that civilians are caught up in these attacks.” Mohyeldin said doctors in the Gaza Strip were being overwhelmed by the number of casualties being brought in as a result of the Israeli offensive and that hospitals were near a state of collapse due to a lack of medicines and blood.
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