2:55 a.m. Downtime until the morning. Thanks for all your support and comments today.
2:30 a.m. The lull continues but, as former Israeli Ambassador to the UN Dan Gillerman denies on Al Jazeera that a “National Information Directorate” exists (which is a bold move, given that the NID was “outed” in The Observer of London on Sunday), signs that Israel’s information campaign may not be able to hold open the window for military operations very long.
CNN International is not only leading with footage of the hospitals crisis in Gaza but pointedly noted they obtained this footage despite an Israeli-imposed ban on journalists inside the territory.
Israel tried to counter this by playing up their permission for 80 truckloads of aid (just over 1/10 the pre-conflict amount) into southern Gaza on Monday. On this evidence, this won’t be enough to hold back mounting criticism.
1:25 a.m. Developments on the diplomatic front: Arab Foreign Ministers have met in New York but it is already clear that a Libyan-sponsored resolution, blocked by the US last weekend, is “dead”. Instead, talk is of a French-drafted resolution, which Paris is hoping will be supported by Arab representatives. United Nations sources say this will include calls for an immediate ceasefire, a “humanitarian corridor” for aid, and a “monitoring mechanism”. With the manoeuvring needed for any hope of passage, the resolution will not be brought up for a vote on Tuesday.
The Gazan death toll is now at least 548. UN officials in Gaza continue to emphasise that this is “a humanitarian crisis”.
11:30 p.m. A bit of a lull in developments on military and diplomatic fronts. Al Jazeera reports that the fighting around Gaza City seems for an elevated area just outside the city which provides a vantage point across northern Gaza.
9:30 p.m. Al Jazeera’s Ayman Mohyeldin on the current Israeli bombardment: “Almost every building in Israel’s definition is a Hamas building.”
3:02 a.m. OK, that’s it for awhile. Thanks to all for supporting the blog and sending in items. Back in the morning.
3 a.m. Reuters reports Hamas to send delegation to Egypt on Monday at invitation of Egyptians. This will coincide with French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s visit to Cairo.
2:15 a.m. All those associated with the Israeli information campaign take note:
While CNN television is generally helping Israel hold its publicity line as it moves further into Gaza, CNN’s website is confronting it. It is now leading with the story, based on the interview almost 12 hours ago with Norwegian doctor Erik Fosse, of patients “lying everywhere” in an Al-Shifa hospital lacking medicine and equipment. The website is also highlighting Fosse’s remark that “about 30 percent of the casualties at Shifa Hospital on Sunday were children, both among the dead and the wounded”. (The Palestinian death toll of 507 is now the #2 story on the website.)
As expected, the UN Security Council could not reach agreement on any action in its emergency session. The US blocked any approval of a resolution calling for an “immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel and expressing concern at the escalation of violence between Israel and Hamas”.
Al Jazeera’s Ayman Mohyeldin, the only broadcast correspondent inside Gaza, reports fighting in the east of Gaza, with Israeli troops searching house-to-house. The Israeli attack occurred on three fronts, with an Israeli column moving east to west and reaching the Mediterranean to split Gaza in two. Israeli troops have reached the northern towns of Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun and the Jabaliya refugee camp, and eyewitness report Israeli forces on the outskirts of Gaza City.
1:10 a.m. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon calls for immediate cease-fire. CNN prefers to repeat, without analysis, the statement of Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak.
1 a.m. Watching Fox News to find out their angle — They go to their man on the Israel-Gaza border, Mike Tobin, who quite clearly has no decent sources of information and is just making up “news”, such as possibility that Hamas set fires to the gas tanks in Gaza — The media-literate might find a Tobin/Fox News look-a-like in The Day Today’s Peter O’Hanra-hanrahan
12:55 p.m. Al Jazeera: US State Department says cease-fire is needed as soon as possible and is concerned about humanitarian situation but says “Hamas is holding Gaza’s people hostage”
12:42 p.m. CNN gives 10 minutes to military analyst Retired General David Grange, who says despite “extraordinary precautions” by Israel, Number One risk is civilian casualties — He says Hamas wants to “induce casualties among its own people” as well as Israeli forces
Why not just identify Grange as “spokesperson for Israeli Defense Forces”?
12 midnight. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband calls for immediate cease-fire. UN Security Council to meet at 7 p.m. New York time (2 hours from now).
Update: An Israeli bomb has killed nine and wounded at least 60 in a mosque in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. According to CNN, “leaflets signed by the commander of the Israeli military were dropped over northern Gaza on Saturday morning, warning residents to ‘leave the area immediately’ to ensure their safety”.
[The Israel-Gaza conflict] possesses a moral clarity not only rare but excruciating.
Israel is so scrupulous about civilian life that, risking the element of surprise, it contacts enemy noncombatants in advance to warn them of approaching danger.
A reader from Birmingham replies, “This issue of pre-warning Arab ‘targets’ was an impressive act of propaganda by the Israelis- not actually expected or intended to save lives it has been supplied as effective ammunition for pro-Israeli writers in America.”
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