Jeremy Bowen (BBC) from Gaza

Jeremy Bowen's Gaza notebook: I saw no evidence of Hamas using Palestinians as human shields
22 July -- The BBC's Middle East editor reports from Gaza : I saw Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, giving an interview to the BBC after Israel had killed more than 60 people in the Gaza district of Sheja‘iya. He said he regretted the civilian casualties in Gaza but they were the fault of Hamas. Netanyahu said Israel had warned people to get out. Some had taken the advice; others had been prevented from leaving by Hamas. I was back in London for my son’s 11th birthday party by the time all those people were killed in Sheja‘iya. But my impression of Hamas is different from Netanyahu’s. I saw no evidence during my week in Gaza of Israel’s accusation that Hamas uses Palestinians as human shields. I saw men from Hamas on street corners, keeping an eye on what was happening. They were local people and everyone knew them, even the young boys. Raji Sourani, the director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza, told me that Hamas, whatever you think of it, is part of the Palestinian DNA. I met Sourani first when he was condemning abuses by Yasser Arafat’s men. He has taken an equally tough stance on Hamas. Now he says Israel is violating the laws of war by ignoring its legal duty to treat Palestinian civilians as protected non-combatants. Hamas, human rights groups say,also violates the laws of war by firing missiles at civilians  ... But it is wrong to suggest that Israeli civilians near Gaza suffer as much as Palestinians. It is much, much worse in Gaza. I defy anyone with an ounce of human feeling not to feel the same after ten minutes in Gaza’s Shifa Hospital with wounded and dying civilians. In the mortuary, it’s so overcrowded that the bodies of two children are crammed on to a single shelf. One day, they had only found enough of the remains of six women and children to fill a single stretcher.

As Israeli violence continues - responses

Outside the BBC, Bristol

In the UK, as children were killed by Israeli fire while playing on a Gaza beach, and a spokesman said on the BBC that this was part of Israel's justified fight to defend its people, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign released this statement, calling on people to oppose Israeli aggression: 
"This isn’t about rockets from Gaza. It’s about Israel fighting to maintain its control over Palestinian lives, and Palestinian land. It’s about Israel feeling able to commit war crimes with complete impunity."


Street protests against Israeli actions and the BBC's bias in its reporting of the crisis took place all over the UK.

From Jonathan Cook, Nazareth

http://www.jonathan-cook.net/

Clashes put Jewish-Arab relations in Israel to the test 7 July 2014
Black, pungent smoke from burning tyres mixed with white, even more acrid plumes of tear gas to create an ugly grey smog eclipsing Nazareth’s most famous landmark, the imposing spire of the Basilica of the Annunciation. Clashes over the weekend between youths and police in Israel’s largest Palestinian city have not been seen on this scale since the outbreak of the second intifada in late 2000. You can’t force-feed occupation to those who crave freedom 23 June 2014 Israelis have been lulled into a false sense of security by the promise of endless and simple technical solutions. Palestinians are confined to ever smaller spaces: the prison of Gaza, the city under lockdown, the torture cell, or the doctor’s surgery where a feeding tube can be inserted. But the craving for self-determination and dignity are more than technical problems. You cannot force-feed a people to still their hunger for freedom.
Israelis close their ears to reasons for kidnap 20 June 2014
The apparent abduction of three teenagers has provoked a wave of revulsion in Israel but no readiness to examine the causes of the incident or the appropriateness of Israel’s response. Haneen Zoabi, a Palestinian member of the parliament, discovered the cost of not joining the chorus of outrage: she was assigned a bodyguard after receiving a flood of death threats, and is being investigated for incitement. - See more at: http://www.jonathan-cook.net/#sthash.fxWDMogC.dpuf

Website of the moment - closing the gap

It can't be restated too often: just as the first anti-Nazis were Germans, so the first anti-Zionists were Jews. They are still on the front line: http://ijsn.net/ - All the better for a visit as the occupation could edge towards civil war in the West Bank, pushing the imposition of the rule of law further from the table.

Colonisers invoke justice in West Bank as soldiers destroy homes

“Ya’alon at funeral: No rest until we bring kidnappers to justice”
Justice in the West Bank is a shifting concept, where the colonisers, or "settlers" claim ownership of 62% of the land, and the Israeli army is able to attack the relatives of mere suspects with impunity. This behaviour was common before the recent murder of Israeli teenagers. That murder, which ideally would be dealt with by legal enforcement, has only served to refocus the world's attention on Palestine/Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-peace-conference/1.601479