Yesterday – after the Gaza Strip has been decimated by 21 days on nonstop shelling, air strikes and tanks – Israel announced a “unilateral cease-fire” – but only after arranging for the US to provide military support for the continuing Israeli occupation and massive shipments of American munitions. There are numerous reports that they planned to stop before the Inauguration (or perhaps before their pals Bush and Condi were out the door in case Obama is less cooperative.)

Today, Hamas announced a one week cease-fire conditional on Israeli forces leaving Gaza – and first reports show some of those forces leaving. How many and how completely Israel will withdraw remains an open question. Hamas has been offering all along to join a cease-fire if Israel would leave and would open the blockade on Gaza but of course, Israel is portraying itself as the one who chose peace first – having “accomplished our objectives.”

Whether Hamas can enforce a cease-fire from the Gaza side is uncertain – since Israel’s first major attack targeted the Gaza police force – the very folks who had enforced a halt to rocket attacks for the previous six months – we’ll have to wait and see. 

Meanwhile Israel allowed – for the first time – foreign journalists to enter Gaza and see the devastation. By keeping them out until the attack had ended – and until the world’s media goes into nonstop coverage of the Obama inauguration – they’ve managed to undermine reports from inside Gaza by claiming it was all just Palestinian lies and by flooding western media with their own propaganda. The video above examines – and debunks one such Israeli report.

This morning the people of Gaza emerged from what’s left of their homes and the UN compounds where they fled (and which themselves were bombed) to see what has become of their neighbors and community. At least 100 more bodies have already been recovered from the rubble and there may well be more.

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Thanks to Sameh Habeeb of Gaza Today, we have these photos which he took today showing the aftermath – you can see many more here.  

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 As we wait to see what happens next, it’s important to remember what we’ve just seen. So often we are encouraged to sink into a comfortable amnesia designed to wipe away the news of civilian deaths and the war crimes – whether our own in Iraq and Afghanistan – or now those of our allies and best arms customers in Israel. So let’s recap and remember – and insist on international action. 

Last March, Israeli officials met with Condi Rice and then approved a plan for a war on Gaza. By their own admission, Israel signed onto the June 19 cease-fire in order to buy time for preparing for that war – and while Hamas honored the cease-fire, Israel used the world’s focus on the Obama election on November 4 to launch an incursion into Gaza, killing 6 Palestinians – knowing this would provoke a Hamas reaction since it was an act of war. That reaction was then used as an excuse for further Israeli incursions and as the justification of a siege of Gaza, blocking all shipments of food, medicine and fuel to the residents who live in a virtual prison, unable to leave, unable to live with no electricity, starvation level food supplies and a compromised water supply since the fuel needed for the water sanitation plants was not let in.  The people of Gaza were reduced to eating bread made from animal feed – and when that ran out, grass. Even with this continuous collective punishment of the people of Gaza, their elected government announced – multiple times – that they would agree to a new cease-fire on the condition that the blockade of supplies be lifted.

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Instead, Israel – with its massive PR campaign – claimed that Hamas refused a new cease-fire – and then launched a vicious attack on Gaza.

Over 1300 Gazans have been killed, over 5,000 wounded – one third of those children - and the casualties included medics trying to rescue wounded families, journalists, and more than 50 Gazans who had fled to UN schools for refuge from the fighting. The UN warehouse and all the humanitarian aid in it were destroyed when Israel bombed it– apparently using white phosphorus, setting the building on fire.

There can be no real peace for the people of Gaza until they are allowed self-determination – in the meantime, at least we can insist that Israel open the borders and allow in the humanitarian aid they so desperately need. Let’s not forget them while the world shifts its attention t the celebrations in Washington this week.

Photos: Sameh Habeeb used with permission, video (and link the BBC photo of the UN warehouse bombing) h/t Jeremy Hammond of Foreign Policy Journal.