Wednesday, January 7, 2009

No shelter

Editorial
The Guardian
, Wednesday 7 January 2009

"In the weeks before Israel attacked Hamas, senior Israeli officials calculated that they had bought themselves time for a prolonged demolition job in Gaza. Only two factors, they reasoned, could stop the clock. The first would be a shell dropping on a civilian mass shelter, a repetition of the bombing of the UN compound in Qana, Lebanon, in 1996, when more than 100 lost their lives. The second would be the international outrage which grew from it. Yesterday the horror of Qana was revisited on Gaza. Three shells exploded outside a United Nations school in Jabalya refugee camp, where more than 300 Palestinians had sought refuge. Over 40 died and 55 were injured. It was waiting to happen. The question is whether the international community will now call time on Israel's offensive......

If Israel presses on regardless, it should face an immediate suspension of all arms from the EU, as Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, proposes. Israel does not have carte blanche to destroy Gaza, the prospects of Palestinian reconciliation and with it a Palestinian state."

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