Olmert defends Gaza onslaught as death toll hits 50
Nine Palestinians were killed as Israel pounded Gaza with deadly air strikes and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert defended the massive military offensive in the face of international criticism.
Despite the mounting toll, Hamas’s exiled political chief insisted the captured soldier at the heart of the worst Middle East crisis in months — and the deadliest in four years — would not be freed without a swap for Palestinian prisoners.
Israel has refused to negotiate with Hamas or free prisoners in exchange for the missing teenage corporal, pressing on regardless with its deadly offensive in which three football-playing adolescents were among the dead Monday.
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The Wahbas’ last meal
They’d all sat down to have lunch at home: The mother Fatma, her daughter Farah, 2; her son Khaled, 1; Fatma’s brother, Dr. Zakariya Ahmed; his daughter-in-law Shayma, who was nine months pregnant; and the 78-year-old grandmother. A family gathering in Khan Yunis in honor of the uncle, who’d arrived home six days earlier from Saudi Arabia.
A big boom is heard outside. Fatma hurriedly scoops up the littlest one and tries to escape into an inner room. But another boom follows immediately. This time it’s a direct hit by the second missile fired by the excellent Israel Air Force pilot, and it comes right into the dining room through the ceiling. Fatma, three months pregnant, is killed on the spot by the shrapnel that hits her spine. Her brother, Dr. Ahmed, is also killed. His daughter-in-law miscarries her child, the little girl Farah is moderately injured and the baby of the family, Khaled, is critically injured in the head. A puddle of blood collects on the floor. Only the grandmother is unhurt. It will be many minutes before the ambulance arrives. This was the last meal of the Wahba family.
‘Apartheid Israel’ worse than apartheid SA
The “apartheid Israel state” is worse than the apartheid that was conducted in South Africa, Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) president Willie Madisha said on Monday.
He said Palestinians were being attacked with heavy machinery and tanks used in war, which had never happened in South Africa.
Cosatu and other organisations supporting Palestine have called on government to end diplomatic relations with Israel and establish boycotts and sanctions such as those against apartheid South Africa.