The Latest on Israel-Gaza-Palestine (21 February)

Evening Update: Egypt has said that the Palestinian "reconciliation" talks will take place on 25 February. Hamas has been holding against attendance at the discussions, which originally were to take place tomorrow.

The Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz uses first-hand evidence to report, "Gazans: IDF [Israeli Defense Forces] used us as 'human shields' during offensive".

Afternoon Update: A spokesman has said Hezbollah is not behind the rocket attack from Lebanon into northwestern Israel this morning.

Morning Update (9:20 a.m. GMT; 11:20 a.m. Israel/Palestine): Benjamin Netanyahu (pictured), the Likud Party leader asked on Friday to form the next Israeli Government, has called for unity with other political parties such as Kadima and Labor and declared that Iran "is developing nuclear weapons and poses the biggest threat to Israel since the war of independence".

Three Israeli medics were injured in northwestern Israel, by one of two rockets fired from Lebanon on Saturday. Israel fired artillery into Lebanon near Tyre.

Two Gazan militants were killed on Saturday. Local medics claim they died from Israeli shellfire, but the Israeli military denied that they launched any attack.

Containing Conflict: Update on Israel, Turkey, and Gaza

In his daily updates, Scott Lucas referred to an "escalation" of the political tensions between Israel and Turkey after the comments of Israeli Major General Avi Mizrahi questioning Turkey's Kurdish, Armenian and Cyprus policies. For me, however, the significance is that, after the Turkish Military`s General Staff warned that Mizrahi's statements could harm the relations between Turkey and Israel, the Israeli army disowned Mizrahi's statements. According to the Israeli Defense Forces, Mizrahi`s remarks did not reflect the official views of the army.

The episode shows again that, despite political conflict and individual statements such as Mizrahi's, Israeli and Turkish armies do not have the luxury of tolerating any interference that can harm the special relationship between their institutions.

Diplomatic Suggestion of the Day: "Israel Needs to Invade The Hague"

The Jerusalem Post features a sensible post-Gaza suggestion from Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the director of the Shurat Hadin - Israel Law Center:

The Knesset [Israeli Parliament] must immediately legislate a far-reaching law prohibiting any agency, court or citizen from cooperating or passing information to any war crimes tribunal. It should block access to foreign investigators, including UN special rapporteurs. The government should be empowered to utilize all necessary force to resist any effort to arrest IDF officers accused of war crimes anywhere in the world.

Foreign countries should be made to understand we mean business.