₦airaland Forum

May his soul rest in peace, amin.

Salam,

Just One Message[b][/b] is a pamplet on who actually Jesus was? A God or a Messenger. Enjoy your readings.

Muhsin

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Friday that he wept upon hearing a Palestinian father calling for help live on television after his children were killed during Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip.

"I cried when I saw this. Who didn't? How could you not?," Olmert told the Israeli newspaper Maariv in an interview in which he defended the policy legacy he will leave when he steps down after an election on February 10.

Israeli television a week ago aired desperate cries for help from a Palestinian doctor, whose calls to report the death of three of his daughters have been re-broadcast repeatedly since.

Olmert said that in approving the assault in Gaza, aimed at the enclave's ruling Hamas Islamist movement, his government had no illusions that Palestinian civilians would be hurt given the densely populated areas in the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave.

"When you win, you automatically hurt more than you've been hurt. And we didn't want to lose this campaign. What did you want, for hundreds of our soldiers to die? That, after all, was the alternative," Olmert told the newspaper.

Ten soldiers were killed, and three Israeli civilians.

The independent Palestinian Center for Human Rights said its researchers had documented the deaths of 1,284 people in the war, of whom 894 appeared to be civilians, including 280 aged under 18. A further 167 members of Hamas's police force died.

Israel has estimated it killed about 500 guerrillas in its drive to deter rocket attacks from Gaza on its southern towns.

Olmert has been acting as caretaker since he resigned in September over a corruption scandal. He will step down in a few weeks, once a government is formed following the election.

The outgoing premier conceded he had made mistakes but defended his record during three years in power, notably over the war against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon in 2006, but denied he was positioning himself for an eventual comeback.

(Reporting by Joseph Nasr, editing by Alastair Macdonald and Samia Nakhoul)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/usTopNews/idUSTRE50M47Y20090123?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0

Obama lays out Middle East vision

Barack Obama, the US president, has urged Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas to maintain their ceasefires in Gaza in his first remarks on the crisis since taking office.

The US leader was speaking at the state department as he named George Mitchell, who helped broker the Good Friday peace accord in Northern Ireland, as US special envoy for the Middle East.

Obama said he was "deeply concerned" about the loss of life in Gaza and also reiterated the US view that Israel had a right to defend itself from Palestinian rocket attacks.

"It will be the policy of my administration to actively and aggressively seek a lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as Israel and its Arab neighbours," Obama said.

"Now we must extend a hand of opportunity to those who seek peace. As part of a lasting ceasefire, Gaza's border crossings should be open to allow the flow of aid and commerce," Obama said.

Obama also reiterated the US backing for international demands made of the Hamas faction that governs Gaza: that it recognise Israel, end violence and agree to recognise previous peace agreements with Israel.

He also said the US would support efforts to end weapons smuggling across the Gaza border from Egypt.

'Unfortunate start'

Obama did, however, call for a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza following its offensive, and said the US would provide humanitarian and economic assistance to the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip.

Osama Hamdan, a Hamas spokesman, told Al Jazeera that Obama's remarks seemed to show that the US viewed the situation through "Israeli eyes".

"It seems that Obama is trying to repeat the same mistakes that George Bush made without taking into consideration Bush's experience that resulted in the explosion of the region instead of reaching stability and peace in it," he said.

"I think this is an unfortunate start for President Obama in the region and the Middle East issue. And it looks like the next four years, if it continues with the same tone, will be a total failure."

More than 1,300 Palestinians, and 13 Israelis, died after Israel began its offensive in Gaza on December 27, before both sides separately declared a ceasefire on January 18.

Veteran negotiator

Mitchell, 75, acknowledged there were "many reasons to be sceptical" about the prospects for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

"The key is the mutual commitment of the parties, and the active participation of the United States government," he said.

He is best known for helping to broker Northern Ireland's landmark Good Friday agreement in 1998 which ended decades of bloody conflict, and experience which he said led him to form the conviction that "there is no conflict that cannot be ended".

In 2000, he also presided over a committee investigating the ongoing violence of the Middle East conflict, which recommended Palestinians do more to stop attacks on Israel and Israel stop settlement building on occupied land.

Obama also named Richard Holbrooke, a former UN ambassador, as his special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Dayton architect

Holbrooke, another US political veteran with years of diplomatic experience, is best known for brokering the 1995 peace agreement that ended three years of war in Bosnia.

Holbrooke, on accepting the position, said he had been given a "daunting assignment".

Journalist and analyst Roy Gutman told Al Jazeera that the fact that Obama appointed Holbrooke as the first such envoy for the region on only his second day in office shows that the issue is a top priority for the Obama administration.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/01/200912222168481201.html

@topic
Its meant to make members laugh, I think. Keep it up.

davidylan:
the big problem is you will NEVER find an arab who has "conscience" i.e. writes an opinion piece condemning arabs.

Its easier to find those written by "jews" and start howling like murderous cult members.

David,

You do all you can to depend these people (its even hard to call them people, I swear.), while their actions, at least some, are unjustifiable, reprehensible and condemnable. Keep it up.

I darned well know had it been there was a Jew on this board, he would have given you a big kudos for that effort, or even more.

superboi:
LESSON: do not dance with obasanjo . if not u be caught

Isn't OBJ there to engineer peace-talk not 'arrest-talk', bros? Its not his effort byproduct that Nkunda was captured, I think.

Friday, January 23, 2009; Page A16
CONGO
Rebel Leader Nkunda Arrested in Rwanda

Tutsi rebel leader Laurent Nkunda was arrested in Rwandan territory after he tried to resist a joint Rwandan-Congolese military operation in eastern Congo, the operation's joint command said Friday. The operation was launched this week to hunt Rwandan Hutu rebels operating in Congo.

More than 3,500 Rwandan troops have crossed the border to assist Congolese government forces trying to disarm the Hutu rebels.

U.N. peacekeepers in Congo pressed Thursday for a role in the operation, saying they feared for the fate of civilians otherwise.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/22/AR2009012203753.html

@earTHmama,

You haven't yet responded olanajim's question?

I am skeptical but if he does the right thing I will be the first to commend him for it. Thus I think that gesture is good. My compliment.

Barack Obama, the US president, has ordered the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison camp within one year and a review of the military tribunals set up by the Bush administration to try them.

Obama also signed an order ending the harsh interrogation of prisoners held by the US and requiring investigators to comply with the Geneva Conventions.

On his second full day in office, Obama signed the three orders surrounded by retired military officers in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington.

Obama said the signing of the order showed "we are willing to observe core standards, not just when its easy but when its hard".

"The message that we are sending around the world is that the United States intends to prosecute the ongoing struggle against violence and terrorism," Obama said.

"We are going to do so vigilantly; we are going to do so effectively; and we are going to do so in a manner that is consistent with our values and our ideals."

Obama had promised to close the detention centre during his election campaign.

Guantanamo was set up by the Bush administration in 2002 to hold prisoners it detained as part of its so-called war on terror.

The US president also said he was setting up a task force that would have 30 days to recommend policies on handling "terror" suspects who are detained in future.

The force would look at where those detainees should be held instead of Guantanamo.

On Thursday, Obama had ordered a halt to military tribunals of al-Qaeda suspects held at the camp, including those suspected of involvement in the September 11 attacks.

The order ending harsh interrogations also requires that all interrogations follow the US Army's Field Manual interrogation guidelines, which ban the use of techniques such as "waterboarding," which simulates the sensation of drowning.

It also ends US government reliance on a series of controversial legal advice notes on the treatment of prisoners drawn up by Bush administration advisers.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/am, 150709233.html

anengiyefa:
@mushin, so what is the meaning of what you just wrote here? Can you please explain to us in plain simple English?

You had me laughing, fellow. Although I agree that I was unintentionally and unavoidably wrong, for I was in a hell of a hurry the other time I made that response. Yet, I think my words were not such jargons. They made, no matter how, meaning. LOL

As I said; you fully well know that Israel is on the wrong side to kill innocent, poor, defenseless, weaponless, Palestinians. But you, in spite of that 'truth', will never admit it. Or rather confess it. Period! And the whole world knows that undisputable fact.

I laughed when I listened to this on BBC's World Today early in the morning. Why? I wonder.

LOL You guys are real funny.

@Javalove,

Your Hausa is flawless--hahaha! Euphemism, they call it right?

@Lagosboy,

Are you residing there, I mean Lagos? No wonder that you, although not word by word, translate my words.

@Olanajim,

Correct. 90/100 marks.

@babs787,

Can't you understand a 'small' Hausa like this?

@earTHmama,

Where are you?

RichyBlack,

As I said in another thread, the truth is right near them. They see it. But they deny, always, that they see it. Isreal in the culprit. World knows.

I heard a different story. It reads: Life sentence for boss of tainted milk company.
Here is the link:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5564946.ece

And to your question; I support it. Period!

RichyBlack,

Hamas, a group committed to resisting Zionist terror and Apartheid, remains!

Well said. But I wonder why some fellows here fail to see that truth--right under their noses.

23 proofs of Israel's defeat in the 23-day war

Israel began its Operation Cast Lead against Hamas in the Gaza Strip on December 27, 2008, an almost three-week long bloodbath which killed or wounded thousands of civilians.

Taking into consideration the lessons the regime learned from its defeat in the summer 2006 war against the Lebanese Hezbollah, Tel Aviv avoided setting out any specific objectives for its military operation in a bid to enable it to claim victory after the conflict ended.

The Israeli military initially presumed that it could settle its old score with Hamas and crush the movement in a matter of days. Relying on the support of some Arab states which viewed Hamas's defeat as a blow to Iran, the regime, therefore, took the opportunity provided by the transitional period in the White House and escalated its bombing campaign into a full-blown ground offensive to kill Hamas leaders once and for all.

The plan, however, blew up in the face of its masterminds; everything spiraled out of control and the Israeli Army found itself stuck in a quagmire. Subsequently, the leaders of the Kadima Party who were on the brink of political bankruptcy and had resorted to the plan to save themselves ahead of the general elections, had to hastily find a way to clean up the mess.

They unilaterally declared a truce to break the deadlock while disguising their military failure as a humanitarian act.

However, Israeli military and political officials interestingly are still boasting about a decisive victory over Hamas. The reality on the ground proves the opposite; it indicates a defeat more humiliating than what the regime suffered in the 33-day war.

Israel was ,without doubt, the loser because:

1- From the military perspective, "the most powerful" army in the Middle East which faced only a militia group hardly advanced into the Gaza Strip's urban areas. It faced fierce resistance and realized that the price of any military victory would be too high.

2- At the beginning of the operation, Israel announced that the operation was aimed at preventing rocket attacks by Hamas and other Palestinian groups against Israeli towns. Palestinians, however, continued striking Israeli targets, even in the last hours of the war.

3- Hamas extended the range of its rockets and managed to hit targets as far away as 60 kilometers from the Gaza Strip. In fact, the Israeli operation helped Hamas boost its military might.

4- In the course of killing civilians, the Israeli regime set up a factory for producing living time bombs which will jeopardize the security situation for Israel. Civilian casualties in any conflict always radicalize members of bereaved families. Following} the massacre of civilians in Gaza, it is more likely that those Palestinians who adopted a nonviolent approach to resist the Israeli occupation, will now turn to military tactics. Keep in mind that many of them have noting to lose.

5- Israel hastily signed an agreement with the US-a third party which was not directly involved in the war-to prevent "the arm smuggling" into the Gaza Strip. The deal envisaged measures to prevent Hamas from rearming, going so far as to for example seek US assistance in policing sea routes to Gaza and providing Egypt with the equipment to destroy smuggling tunnels along its border with the costal sliver. This was however nothing but a propaganda tactic to persuade public opinion that the war had had some achievements. Shin Bet's announcement that Hamas will be able to rearm within a few months supports this notion. The Israeli media has also revealed that Washington has given no guarantees to Tel Aviv that Hamas would not be rearmed.

6- Hamas has vowed to restore its arsenals, dealing a blow to Israeli officials who claim that the movement has been "punished" and it knows that it cannot continue its armed campaign against Israel.

7- No high-ranking Hamas leader, except Said Siyam, was killed in the Israeli operation. In fact, it is estimated that out of more than thousands of victims of the Israeli offensive, only 95 people were Hamas members and most of them were killed on the first day of the attack when Hamas was caught off guard due to alleged betrayal of some Arab states.

8- Israel's defeat by a small group has shattered the image of an invincible army that overpowered the army of several Arab nations in 1967. It would not be surprising if Israel's arch foes were encouraged to settle their old score with the regime after its recent defeat. No matter what you have in your arsenals, you are considered the loser if you have been defeated in your enemy's mind. Israel seems to have entered the spiral of decline.

9- From the political perspective, Israel's situation is not any better than the one in the military arena. For the first time, two Israeli ambassadors were expelled, a big diplomatic humiliation for Tel Aviv.

10- The indiscriminate killing of civilians including women and children drew international condemnation to the point that the US, which always vetoes UN Security Council resolutions against Israel, was neutralized and gave in to mounting international pressure when the council voted on a binding resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.

11- Israel's strategy of decreasing Hamas's popularity through putting pressure on the Gazans has obviously backfired. The Islamic movement emerged more popular than ever before after the war, because any group or person who deals a blow to Israel will be praised as a hero in the eyes of Arab nations. We witnessed the phenomenon during the 33-day war which made Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah the most popular Arab leader in the Islamic world.

12- Following the Gaza war, Mahmoud Abbas's political life came to an end. Now, Abbas who was reportedly preparing himself for returning to Gaza after the Hamas government was toppled, has to desperately beg to political brokers to find a place for him in the political future of Palestine. If Abbas loses in the Palestinian Authority general elections - a strong possibility given the situation after the Gaza war- Israel will lose its partner for peace talks.

13- Kadima's hopes for victory in the upcoming elections have been dashed. In other words, right-wing parties like the Likud and people like Israel Beitenu's and Shas's hawks will come to power, fanatics who do not even believe in peace. Israel should brace itself for days during which there would be no hope for a political solution to the current conflict.

14- The Gaza war managed another sort of uncalled for achievement for Israel: it united all Muslims and anti-Israeli parties across the world! The world has never witnessed such massive anti-Israeli rallies.

15- Hamas has set a good example for others. A small group managed to defeat the most powerful army in the Middle East. It would not be surprising if someday, we see Israel struggling to survive in a battle with a host of small or big groups and organizations which adopt military resistance as their approach.

16- The Israelis have realized that their leaders are unable to protect them; there is no safe place inside the occupied territories. It means that Israel's worst nightmare is coming true: a dramatic rise in the rate of negative immigration followed by major demographical impacts. It could shake the foundation of the Israeli regime through changing the Jewish people to a minority group in occupied Palestine. The apprehensions about this issue have so far prompted the regime to deny Palestinian refugees the right to return to their land.

17- After the war, the world is recognizing Hamas as a main player whose role can no longer be ignored and it cannot be excluded from any political process in the Middle East.

18- Prime Minister Ismail Haniya called the war "Forqan", a Quranic word meaning what separates good and evil. The outcome of the war weakened those Arab states who had adopted a pro-Israeli stance. On the other hand, it also highlighted the significance of the role of pro-resistance countries including Iran and Syria. Therefore, the balance of power has changed with regards to Israel's interests.

19- Kadima leaders made a fool of themselves and showed that they lack the qualifications required to lead the regime. Kadima, which was set up by former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to end the regime's political deadlock, committed a political suicide by attacking Gaza.

20- The war also weakened the political base of those leaders of Islamic countries who are close to Israel. They have to face their people. The process has already started as we have witnessed demonstrations in some countries in which political or social protests are rare.

21- Despite nonstop bombing of the Gaza Strip by unconventional weapons, Gazans kept their high morale, a fact reported by Western journalists. There were no long queues of people at border crossings wanting to flee to a safe place. Inside Israeli towns, scores of people were treated for "shock" everyday. In other words, Israel has also lost the psychological war.

22- The war unfortunately fueled anti-Semitic sentiments across the world. Although attacks on Jews or their property under any pretext are certainly condemned, the fact indicates that Israel, despite paying lip service to the world Jewry, never considers the interests of the Jewish. Tel Aviv even turned down a request by 11 prominent leaders of the British Jewish community who asked the regime to stop its offensive for the sake of their security.

23- There are and will be groups which will open legal cases against Israel in international courts for its war crimes in Gaza. If Hamas had been destroyed, Israeli leaders might have been able to claim that it had been worth paying such a heavy price. But without achieving anything , how can they justify their acts which have drawn a wave of international condemnation?

The Gaza war has certainly changed the status quo against Israel. History seems to repeat itself; the situation is the same as that of the days after the end of the 33-Day War except for one thing: this time, the regime has no excuse to justify its defeat; there was no inexperienced defense minister leading the war.

The Gaza war dealt the last blow to the Israeli regime and its end result is the start of a battle within the regime which will put its very existence at risk.

Those who make a mistake once may be considered as inexperienced but those who repeat their mistakes are certainly judged as being "incompetent and insane". Shall we expect another Winograd report?

Press TV

---

Am waiting for what guyz like Davidylan, 4 real and co are gonna say here.  

I have a dream that one day earTHmama would renaounce her present faith and convert to Islam, too. There's one saying in Hausa; in kaji kare yana shinshina takalmi,

Nigerian author Chinua Achebe slams African elections

ABUJA (AFP) — Nigeria's best-known author Chinua Achebe, who is making a rare trip home, has lashed against Africa's flawed electoral system saying "politics is not warfare."

"I must express very profound disappointment with what is happening on the African continent concerning elections, concerning succession," the author of the classic novel, Things Fall Apart, told reporters in Abuja late Monday.

"The idea of a civilised society is one where power is transferred willingly because the law is there. But somehow in Africa, we still have not learnt that simple but profoundly important fact," the 78-year-old said.

He said "politics is not warfare" and urged African politicians not to view it as a "do-or-die" affair.

Achebe is a harsh critic of Nigeria's successive governments, accusing them of corruption and bad governance. He has rejected several national awards and honours.

Things Fall Apart, written in 1958, has been translated into at least 45 languages and sold eight million copies.

Other novels include: No Longer At Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), and A Man of the People (1966).

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hOxvP_w1e1mNYCF0UhxUC9P-llmQ

Davidylan, you,

omolaoye:
It's over

Not yet. Didn't you read what has just started happening?

As MrCrackles said; may God take control in Gaza, ameen!

You guys are quite unfair with that Hamas! They rejected the cease-fire because the IDF remain on their soil, they said.

Hamas warned that a ceasefire declared by oneside is not a ceasefire. Israel went to war on a situation they created (by breaking the previous ceasefire). Hamas is prepared to fight on, and Israel does not gain any moral justification by their ceasefire until it is made concrete by withdrawal and allowing Gaza to operate as a free state (not a vassal). If they want to gain some moral Kudos, they must make full raparations for the damage to the infrastucture and families and social communications network that they have destroyed. Otherwise, black can never be painted white.

Exchanges of fire puncture fragile Gaza truce


GAZA CITY (AFP) — Israeli troops and Palestinian fighters exchanged their first shots in Gaza on Sunday, puncturing a tenuous ceasefire after the Jewish state halted a deadly war on the Hamas rulers of the enclave.

As the army carried out its first air raid on militants firing rockets, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned that the unilateral truce Israel had begun hours earlier was fragile and was being constantly reassessed.

"The government's decision allows Israel to respond and renew the fire if our enemy in the Gaza Strip continues its strikes," he said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.

"This morning they again proved that the ceasefire is fragile and it has to be reassessed on a minute by minute basis," he said. "We hope that the fire ends. If it continues, the IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) will respond. It is prepared and deployed to do so."

The incidents come amid a major diplomatic push by Egypt to turn Israel's unilateral ceasefire into a lasting truce, with president Hosni Mubarak hosting leaders from Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Spain and Turkey.

Officials said that the clashes did not necessarily mean a return to all-out fighting.

"There will no doubt be isolated incidents," Israeli Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said. "It will take two to three days for everything to end completely, for Hamas to understand that we are now in a new scenario."

Hamas, the Islamist movement that has ruled Gaza for a year and a half, has warned that it would not accept the presence of a single Israeli soldier in Gaza.

"We have clearly said: if Israeli troops remain in Gaza, this will be a wide window for the resistance against the occupation," Osama Hamdan, the group's representative in Lebanon, said in an interview with Al-Jazeera television.

On the ground, Palestinian medics took advantage of the relative lull in the fighting to descend on areas which had been inaccessible due to heavy clashes.

At least 40 bodies, including several children, were pulled from the rubble in northern Gaza, medics said.

As Hamas congratulated the Palestinians on "victory" from mosque loudspeakers, Gaza residents cautiously ventured out into the streets to inspect the rubble that was once their homes.

"We congratulate all the Palestinian people after the victory in the fight with the enemy," bellowed a voice from a Hamas mosque in central Gaza City.

Meanwhile Yahia Karin, 54, surveyed the damage in Zeitun, his neighbourhood in southern Gaza that was the scene of some of the most furious battles between Israeli ground troops and Hamas militants.

"I came to see my home, but as you can see, there is no home here anymore," he told AFP looking at the charred pile of rubble on the spot where he once lived. "Everything has been completely destroyed."

On the diplomatic front, Egypt is to host an international summit on Sunday afternoon attended by several European leaders and UN chief Ban Ki-moon, to seek a lasting truce between Israel and Hamas.

Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, said on Saturday his country "will continue its efforts as soon as there is a ceasefire to restore the truce and lift the blockade" imposed by Israel on crossing points into Gaza after Hamas seized power in the territory in June 2007.

Olmert announced late on Saturday that Israel was unilaterally silencing its guns after an unprecedented 22-day-long campaign in Gaza, which killed at least 1,245 people, including more than 400 children, wounded another 5,300, and left large swathes of the territory in ruins.

On the Israeli side three civilians and 10 soldiers were killed in combat and rocket attacks.

"We have reached all the goals of the war, and beyond," Olmert said.

During the course of the war, schools, hospitals, UN compounds and thousands of homes all came under attack with the Palestinian Authority putting the cost of damage to infrastructure alone at 476 million dollars.

The halt to the violence came after the Jewish state won pledges from Washington and Cairo to help prevent arms smuggling into Gaza, a key demand to halt the fighting.

The ceasefire comes less than a month before Israel holds elections when Olmert, who formally resigned last autumn, is due to stand down.

The premier, whose reputation was badly damaged by a 2006 war in Lebanon seen by many Israelis as a disaster, said the Gaza war had "strengthened the deterrence of the state of Israel in the face of all those who threaten us."

"Hamas received a hard blow. Its leaders are hiding. Many of its men have been killed. Dozens of tunnels have been bombarded. The ability to launch rockets into Israel has been reduced."

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gYNGE2raaOMxnq3AF7mBlbnbj2TQ

I wonder how much longer these American Terrorists will keep defending these Israelis from these blatant acts of terrorism. "Accidental" simply doesn't cut it. They knew full well what they were attacking.

If America really cared about the concept of Justice it claims to uphold. They will bring Israel to account for their War Crimes and stop arming them.

Any way, US is UN. And it allows Israel to do everything she likes. No probs. There is hereafter. Allah ya isa!

The main UN compound in Gaza was in flames today after being struck by Israeli artillery fire, and a spokesman said that the building had been hit by shells containing the incendiary agent white phosphorus.

The attack on the headquarters of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) came as Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, arrived in Israel on a peace mission and plunged Israel's relations with the world body to a new low.

Mr Ban told reporters in Tel Aviv that he had expressed "strong protest and outrage" to the Israeli Government over the shelling of the compound and was demanding an investigation. He said that Ehud Barak, the Israeli Defence Minister, had told him it was "a grave mistake".

UNWRA, which looks after some four million Palestinian refugees around the region, suspended its operations in Gaza after the attack, in which it said three of its employees had been injured.

Chris Gunness, an UNRWA spokesman, said that the building had been used to shelter hundreds of people fleeing Israel’s 20-day offensive in Gaza. He said that pallets with supplies desperately needed by Palestinians in Gaza were on fire.

"What more stark symbolism do you need?" he said. "You can’t put out white phosphorus with traditional methods such as fire extinguishers. You need sand, we don’t have sand."

The Israeli military has denied using white phosphorus shells in the Gaza offensive, although an investigation by The Times has revealed that dozens of Palestinians in Gaza have sustained serious injuries from the substance, which burns at extremely high temperatures.

The Geneva Convention of 1980 proscribes the use of white phosphorus as a weapon of war in civilian areas, although it can be used to create a smokescreen. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said today that all weapons used in Gaza were "within the scope of international law".

The attack on the UN compound came as Israeli forces pushed deeper into Gaza City and unleashed their heaviest shelling on its crowded neighbourhoods in three weeks of war. At least 15 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli attacks, medical officials said, pushing the death toll up towards 1,100 - a level that Mr Ban described as "unbearable".

It was not clear whether the escalation signalled a new phase in the conflict. Israel has held back from all-out urban warfare in the narrow alleyways of Gaza's cities, where Hamas militants are more familiar with the lay of the land.

Black smoke billowed over Gaza City, terrifying civilians who said they had "nowhere left to hide" from the relentless shelling.

"I am telling you that Gaza is on fire, everything is under attack. We cannot begin to answer all the calls for help, it is desperate. We cannot reach the people, everyone is trapped and we do not know how to help them," said Doctor Moussa El Haddad at Shifa Hospital.

Maha El-Sheiky, 36, said she fled her home in the western suburbs of Gaza City two days ago, moving her family into a school in the centre of the city. "We thought it would be safer here. But now there is shelling everywhere. It is schools and mosques and hospitals. We don’t know what will be next," she said. "We are hiding, it is in God’s hands."

There were reports that the al-Quds hospital in the Tal El Hawa district, Gaza's second-largest, had been shelled, while more than 500 patients were being treated inside.

An explosion also blasted a tower block that houses the offices of Reuters and several other media organisations, injuring a journalist working for the Abu Dhabi television channel.

Reuters journalists working at the time said it appeared the southern side of the 13th floor of the Al-Shurouq Tower in the city centre had been struck by an Israeli missile or shell. Reuters evacuated its bureau.

Several organisations, including the International Committee of the Red Cross and Human Rights Watch, said that they were "certain" that Israel was using white phosphorus shells in Gaza. Human rights workers said that the use of phosphorus in the densely populated Gaza City could constitute a war crime.

Israel launched the offensive on December 27 in an effort to stop militant rocket fire from Gaza that has terrorised hundreds of thousands of Israelis. It says it will press ahead until it receives guarantees of a complete halt to rocket fire and an end to weapons smuggling into Gaza from neighbouring Egypt


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5521925.ece

Ai Auwal, the truth is one. And they darned well know it.

davidylan:
see how much you "respect" Jesus Christ and give Him "invaluable regard" . . . afterall He's just my "so-called" God eh. Speaking from two sides of the mouth seems to be your speciality.

my brother no vex.

I wish I had refrained this statement from that post, davidylan. But to tell truth I couldn't nurture that capability after knowing very well that Jesus is not God. But that apart, I very much respect him. And you darned well know that, don't you? LOL