be just

allAfrica.com: Somalia: Lingering Divisions and Violent Disagreements Resurface (Page 1 of 1) : "Various sources have confirmed that Ethiopian-backed clan militias are battling for control of the region against Al Shabaab, fighting under the banner of a Sufi group. Ethiopia's new strategy to use clan militia against a divided and fractured Islamist movement in Somalia will ignite a new war, reopening clan hostilities and denying Somalis another chance at stability."

(CBS/AP) Venezuela ordered the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador and some embassy staff on Tuesday to protest Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip. The decision by President Hugo Chavez, a longtime critic of U.S. and Israeli policy, to kick out the diplomats appeared to be the strongest reaction yet to the Gaza offensive by any country with ties to Israel . Venezuela's Foreign Ministry announced the move in a statement, saying it "has decided to expel the Israeli ambassador and part of the personnel of the Israeli embassy." The Israeli offensive in Gaza has killed nearly 600 Palestinians in ground and air strikes. Israel launched the attacks Dec. 27 to stop Palestinian militants from firing rockets into southern Israel.

United Nations investigators say they have uncovered no evidence to support a claim by the Israeli military that Hamas fighters were holed up in a Gaza school, prompting a deadly attack by Israeli forces that killed 40 civilians, many of them children.

Israel strike kills up to 60 members of one family - Telegraph

“This is an all-out war against the civilian Palestinian population”              : Information Clearing House - ICH : "Dr . Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian doctor in Gaza, tells Sky News that the number of civilians injured and killed in Gaza proves that Israel is deliberately attacking the population."

Informed Comment: Sayyid Najm: "Tanks against Flesh is not War" : "Wednesday, January 07, 2009 Sayyid Najm: 'Tanks against Flesh is not War' Aljazeera Arabic this evening interviewed Sayyid Najm, an Egyptian novelist and literature specialist on war in literature. He is author of, among other things, Ayyam Yusuf Mansi (Cairo: Zahran, 1990). He made some interesting points about the structure of war novels, and the way the pacing has to be picked up during the battles. The interviewer then asked about the current fighting. Q. In light of your experience with war in literature, what do you have to say about Gaza today? Sayyid Najm: If were were to speak about the literature of war with regard to today, I'd have to say that there is no war in Gaza. In Gaza today, all that we have experienced and lived through and dealt with the meaning of, tells us that a war is a conventional army fighting another conventional army. But here the tanks are going against flesh an

ei: "By choice they made themselves immune" : "Israel has killed and injured almost 4,000 men, women and children so far in its assault on Gaza; it has entombed whole families together in the ruins of their homes. As I write, news is breaking that Israeli bombs have killed at least 40 civilians huddling in a UN school which they mistakenly thought would be safer than the homes from which Israel's relentless barrage -- and its deliberately terrorizing 'warning' leaflets and prerecorded phone calls -- had already driven them. (I still have one of the leaflets the Israelis dropped on besieged Beirut in 1982 and the language is exactly the same -- 'flee, flee for your lives!'). Mosques, schools, houses, apartment buildings, have all been brought down on the heads of those inside."

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - School hit piles pressure on Israel Israel is facing mounting pressure to agree a ceasefire, as fighting continues in the wake of an attack on a UN school in Gaza. On Wednesday, 11 Palestinians were killed by air strikes and shelling in Gaza City and in the north of the Strip. Explosions were also reported in Jabaliya and Beit Lahia, north of Gaza, as around eight rockets were fired from Gaza into southern Israel. No Israeli injuries have been reported following the rocket attacks. On Tuesday, the Israelis launched an attack on a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) in the northern town of Jabaliya. The attack left 43 Palestinians dead and around 100 wounded