from Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Monday) See the item from Bitter Lemons below the Australian & McKinney articles... What will happen next? Maybe it's largely up to the World Community of peace? How about doing a candlelight vigil in your community on New Year's Eve or Day...a silent one pleading for peace for both Israel & Palestine with one simple peace-making sign may be the most powerful way we can reach our hands across the miles...send your peace-making photos to the major media outlets - especially & including the middle east media...
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PHOTO: Third day of air raids: An Israeli bomb explodes during an air strike in Gaza on Monday [AFP: Jack Guez]
Find more updated videos & other items at here and find much more here on One Heart for Peace, positiveuniverse dot com, Al-Jazeera, Electronic Intifada, Marjoriecohn dot com and keep coming back...
Article from Australia: updated from Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:01:00 +1100 Australia Network News
Witnesses and Hamas sources in the Gaza Strip say Israeli warplanes have carried out dozens of night-time air strikes, targeting ministry buildings and security service installations.
The director of Gaza's emergency services say at least 10 more Palestinians were killed and 40 injured. Earlier, United Nations staff said the death toll had reached 320, with more than 1,400 injured.
Egypt has allowed some trucks laden with medical aid to enter Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, and Israel has also been letting some relief supplies through.
Despite the arrival of some humanitarian aid, crucial medical supplies are still running short and Gaza's hospitals are overwhelmed. The UN official in charge of humanitarian affairs, John Holmes, says much more is needed.
"These supplies are better than nothing but they remain wholly inadequate," he said.
"It's vital that these crossings remain open, whatever the level of violence, and we'll be looking to Israel to uphold the promises it's made in this regard in the coming days, whatever the level of violence might be."
A number of world leaders have urged Israel to cease its attacks immediately.
Australian acting Prime Minister Julia Gillard says the government is deeply disturbed by the resumption of violence in the region.
"We unreservedly condemn the shelling of southern Israel by Hamas and other militant groups and whilst we recognise Israel's right to defend itself we strongly support the United Nations Security Council resolution calling for an immediate halt to all violence," she told the ABC.
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Entire Hamas government being targeted
Earlier, a senior Israeli military officer said Israel was striking at the entire Hamas government in the Gaza Strip.
Israeli military's deputy chief of staff Brigadier General Dan Harel said not single Hamas building would be left standing in Gaza when the attack was over.
"After this operation there will not be a single Hamas building left standing in Gaza, and we plan to change the rules of the game," he told the YNet News website.
"We are hitting not only terrorists and launchers, but also the whole Hamas Government and all its wings."
As air attacks continued on Monday, Israel defended its actions and blamed Hamas for using civilians as human shields.
Defence Minister Ehud Barak has said Israel is in an "all-out war against Hamas and its kind."
But UN aid workers say they are deeply worried about the risks to civilians as the air strikes continue.
Gaza medics say at least a dozen civilians were killed in several Israeli raids on Monday, including about six who died in an air strike on on the home of a senior Hamas militant in northern Gaza.
As bad weather closed in on Gaza on Monday night, making operations more difficult for Israeli aircraft, Palestinian militants fired more rocket salvos across the border, killing three Israeli civilians.
One Arab-Israeli man was killed and another eight people wounded, three seriously, when a rocket hit a building site in the southern city of Ashkelon.
The second fatality was at the Nahal Oz kibbutz just north of the border with the Gaza Strip, medics said, while an Israeli woman died of wounds received after a rocket hit a railyard in the town of Ashdod.
The armed wing of Hamas claimed responsibility for the Ashkelon attack, saying it had fired "three Grad-type rockets".
Military build-up
The Israeli Government has banned foreign journalists from entering Gaza and declared the region around the territory a "closed military zone".
Tanks and other ground forces remain poised on the border for a possible ground invasion.
UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon says he is "deeply alarmed" by the escalation of violence and has condemned both the Hamas rocket attacks on Israel and the Israeli air strikes.
"Both Israel and Hamas must halt their acts of violence and take all necessary measures to avoid civilian casualties," he said.
The White House says the US wants a "sustainable" ceasefire in Gaza and insists that the onus is on Hamas to first stop its rocket attacks on Israel.
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CMcKinney relief boat (allegedly) rammed by Israeli navy
By CRAIG SCHNEIDER A boat carrying international peace activists, including former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, and medical supplies to the embattled Gaza Strip sailed back into a Lebanese port on Tuesday after being turned back and damaged by the Israeli navy, organizers of the trip said.
The crowds on the docks in the Lebanese port city of Tyre were jubilant and cheering as they welcomed the vessel.
The boat, which set off from Cyprus Monday wanted to make a statement and deliver medical supplies to embattled Gaza. The trip’s organizers said the boat was clearly in international waters, 90 miles off the coast of Gaza, at the time of its close encounter with the Israeli navy.
“Our boat was rammed three times, twice in the front and one on the side,” McKinney told CNN Tuesday morning. “Our mission was a peaceful mission. Our mission was thwarted by the aggressiveness of the Israeli military.”
She called on President-elect Obama to address the Gaza crisis, saying the weapons being used by Israel were supplied by the United States.
She denied that the incident was an accident, caused whent he captain of the Dignity tried to maneuver past the Israeli blockade. “What the Israelis are saying is outright disinformation,” she said. “What happened to us last night was a direct threat to our mission, but not our cause.”
In a press release, the Free Gaza movement stated, “Contrary to international maritime law, the Israelis are actively preventing the Dignity from approaching Gaza or finding safe haven in either Egypt or Lebanon. Instead, the Israeli navy is demanding that the Dignity return to Cyprus — despite the fact that the ship does not carry enough fuel to do so.”
McKinney is a high-profile member of a boatload of activists that set sail Monday from Cyprus to deliver medicine to war-torn Gaza.
McKinney, who ran as the Green Party candidate for president, sees the voyage as a humanitarian mission, said her father, former Georgia state Rep. Billy McKinney.
“Her mother did not want her to go,” he said, referring to concerns at home for her safety. “But I think that certain people have missions in life and you can’t deter them.”
The activists, organized by the Free Gaza Group, said their 66-foot yacht called “SS Dignity” would defy an Israeli blockade of Gaza and ferry 16 activists and three tons of Cypriot-donated supplies. The supplies are intended to help treat the wounded from Israeli bombings against targets in Gaza, in retaliation for rocket fire aimed at civilians in southern Israeli towns.
Israel’s aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip continued for a third day on Monday. By Monday, the death toll rose to 364, with some 1,400 reported wounded, according to Palestinian medical officials.
McKinney had sent an e-mail days ago to friends and supporters saying she intended to go to Gaza, said Hugh Esco, a Decatur resident who ran her presidential campaign Web site.
“She has stood with people all over this planet against oppression,” said Esco.
McKinney said she will petition President-elect Barack Obama to speak out against the attacks on Gaza.
The Free Gaza group has made five deliveries of aid by boat to Gaza since August, defying a blockade imposed by Israel when Hamas won control of the territory in June 2007. Organizers say they are aware they may be stopped this time.
“I don’t know if she’ll get off the boat,” her father said. “I hope she gets back safely.” — The Associated Press contributed to this report. More on ajc dot com
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If you haven't already subscribed, check out our Middle East Roundtable. For a free subscription, go to bitterlemons-international dot org. (look for the Op Eds below at the same address or simply google bitterlemons)
War in Gaza Limited strategic objectives by Yossi Alpher
Under the best of circumstances, this operation will not solve our Hamas problem.
War crimes in Gaza put PA in awkward place by Ghassan Khatib
The Israeli attack on Gaza is strengthening Hamas politically and increasing public support and sympathy for the movement - Replaying the 2006 Lebanon War by Yisrael Harel
Israel's reticence to deploy ground forces will generate a very negative outcome.
An Israeli trap for Hamas by Mkhaimar Abusada - Military operations are like snowballs: the more momentum they gather the bigger they become.
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Interview with GTMO Whistleblower Not unrelated to what's happening in GAZA! (Torture & Inhumane treatment at GTMO, Abu Ghraib, the CIA Gulag Archipelago of disappearances, cells in Afghanistan, Egypt, Poland, Diego Garcia, Morocco, Syria & around the world is not without much earlier precedent & is NOT removed from Israeli/CIA & USA Cheney's advise and cooperation as well as training...Go here
More on the Gaza Massacre (check back for more here):
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