What the BBC won't tell you about the School deaths in Gaza

Melanie Phillips makes some very strong accusations in here coffee house blog here.

In short she says that Hamas fired from within the school compound and that it was the triggering of Hamas explosives that caused the causalities in the school.

Also the UN knew about the use of their facilities for firing weapons. ( I heard a fairly unconvincing dance of words last night by a UN official who kept saying on Newsnight that he had no evidence that something like this had happened - which is not the same as saying it didn't - and Jeremy Paxman let him get away with this deliberate ambiguity ).

Now I don't expect the BBC to buy this version of events, but I do expect some scepticism about the UN/Hamas line and also that the claims of each side are stated equally.

Another view on Gaza

From the receiving end of Hamas's campaign to murder :



And a slightly longer video fro Sderot.



This is a view that gets too little airtime, though I do note the BBC has at least mentioned these subjects and that some interviewers ( notably R5L ) challenge Hamas spokespeople and supporters on the morality of this. ( The answer is always the same to go on about calling random murder resistance and to cite other issues ).

Personally I'm not sure I would have taken the approach the Israelis have just now - but its to be remembered that they have tried a large range of other options first. Every concession is seen as weakness rather than a desire for an accommodation. Hamas has tried to kill Israeli citizens randomly and used its own as a human shield combined with its sick death cult of martyrdom.

The dawning unpleasant truth in Gaza

The truth is that Hamas are the devil. Look at the way they have fallen upon their Fatah rivals - and I don't just mean the fact they have sought military victory but the brutal violence, terror and sheer sadistic evil of their attacks on their fellow countrymen, women and children.

But remember their strings are being pulled from elsewhere.

Israel can be really hard to support sometimes, but can you imagine what these Hamas zealots (ok the irony of using that work isn't lost on me) would do if they got their hands on Israel ? You don't have to its being played out now in Gaza.

Women who don't wear the veil do so at risk of their lives. People cannot escape - the Mufti of Jerusalem orders them to stay to be terrorised in the new Hamastan theme park.

Melanie Phillips puts this better than I can here - she also lays into our liberal media, quite rightly IMHO.

Is it the night of the long knives in Gaza ?

It looks like Hamas are going for the kill with Fatah - see Charles Levinson in Gaza City - Daily Telegraph report here.

Civil war certainly looks like an adequate description. Oddly Israel is the protecting power and may be legally obliged to act. Who knows if it will ?

From an article on how people are leaving Gaza here's one chilling tale (Full article in Daily Telegraph by Charles Levinson here )

On Sunday, the violence took a grim turn.

Twenty-eight-year-old Mohammad al Suwerky, a supply runner for Mr Abbas's elite presidential guards, was grabbed by Hamas gunmen and bundled up to the roof of an abandoned building. The militants bound Mr Suwerky's feet with his belt, tied his hands behind his back and tossed him 18 stories to his death on the asphalt below.

Blood on the rooftops, too much for me.

Can you hear the world and the Muslims demanding all this stops ? No ? Thought not.

Perhaps Hamas have been ordered to clear the decks for a potential wider coming conflict ?