While most of us have been strongly focused on the Labour Party Conference, an appalling act of slaughter has been going on. This from Al Jazeera:
An Israeli air attack has killed 11 members of one family in the Gaza Strip, just hours after Benyamin Netanyahu, Israeli prime minister, said his country was ready to “significantly expand” its operation against Palestinian fighters in the territory.
Sunday’s deaths bring the total number of Palestinians killed to 71 since Israeli air strikes began on Wednesday.
From NZ media, Stuff this morning:
An Israeli missile has killed at least 11 Palestinian civilians including four children in Gaza, medical officials said, in an apparent attack on a top militant that brought a three-storey home crashing down.
International pressure for a ceasefire seemed certain to mount in response to the deadliest single incident in five days of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel and Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip.
Israel gave off signs of a possible ground invasion of the Hamas-run enclave as the next stage in its offensive, billed as a bid to stop Palestinian rocket fire into the Jewish state. It also spelt out its conditions for a truce.
US President Barack Obama said that while Israel had a right to defend itself against the salvoes, it would be “preferable” to avoid a military thrust into the Gaza Strip, a narrow, densely populated coastal territory. Such an assault would risk high casualties and an international outcry.
This is clearly an unequal conflict, with israel holding the greatest part of the power, resources and fire-power. I’m not totally clued up on all the politics involved in the Middle East. But I unreservedly condemn these acts of slaughter by Israel. And Obama’s condemnation is too weak.
I’ll leave it to the people with more knowledge on the issues to debate the issues in more depth.
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