Why is the president to be strangely quiet on the Gaza Crisis? Very puzzling!
I believe Obama said something to the effect that he didn't think it was appropriate while President Bush was still in office to question or make statements on Gaza.........If so why has he made so many on the economy etc etc

It hasn't past me by on the question of Israels timing either. Why now, two weeks before Bush leaves office?

I say all this because Israel doesn't look to the UN or EU it looks to the US when defending its borders. Bush has given the Green light, but alas we don't know what Obama thinks

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The peasant bourgeoisie and their self righteous inclinations are the wests cancer!

dont get me started on the "great" Obama.

Palestinian officials said that the death toll in Gaza rose to at least 541 people over the 10-day offensive. Recent victims were said to include 13 members of a Palestinian family in an Israeli strike on their home in the Beach refugee camp.

Lots of pictures of injured Children at the minute. But like EXO1 said the airburst bombs are totally indiscriminant. Yet Obama doesn't feel like he can say anything

I hate to think how many injured there are now.............and how does Israel square this with fighting terrorism. The only people being truely terrorised at present are the Palestinians, HAMAS arn't being terrorised ........Hell they relish the fight at the expense of their own people. Very strange way of fighting terrorism if you ask me!

I have a question for Sniper1 .........Do you now understand the absurd concept of ringing 67,000 mobiles? I'd love to thump the smug idiot who dreamt that one up senseless, What a moron!

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The peasant bourgeoisie and their self righteous inclinations are the wests cancer!

To be completely honest, I think he's getting the PDB that says exactly what is going on over there and now he realizes the situation as something completely different than what the nightly news shows us.

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SI VIS PACEM PARA BELLUM

Really! So Speak up Obama...... I guess he'll be aware that The Palestinians are stuck between the Israeli army and a bunch of extremists. Due to the weaponry the Israeli's have though, they're alot more efficient at killing innocent people than Hamas are at present.

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The peasant bourgeoisie and their self righteous inclinations are the wests cancer!

Lets have it straight...Obama knows the situation..Im sure his advisers have brought him up to speed if he wasnt already...this is a perfect situation for him to be proactive...he wont be able to stay quite forever

Good times or bad thats the job he wanted....rather him then me

I wonder if his going to try and be seen as more of a neutral party then previous presidents

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Some People say the most important thing
a fighter can have is heart.
show me a fighter who's nothing but heart,
and I'll show you a man waiting for a beating.
كافر

Neutral?? hmmm It's more like a f-ckin Coma from where I'm stood!

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The peasant bourgeoisie and their self righteous inclinations are the wests cancer!

[URL="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7813762.stm"]John Ging interview[/URL]

At least 30 people were killed and 55 injured when Israeli artillery shells landed outside a United Nations-run school in Gaza, UN officials have said.

A number of children were among those who died when the al-Fakhura school in the Jabaliya refugee camp took a direct hit, doctors at nearby hospitals said.

Israel said its soldiers had come under fire from militants inside the school.

Earlier, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned of a "full-blown humanitarian crisis" in Gaza.

Speaking on the 11th day of the Israeli assault, a senior ICRC official, Pierre Kraehenbuhl, said life in Gaza had become intolerable.

Palestinian medical sources say up to 600 people have been killed since the attacks began, and Mr Kraehenbuhl said much more needed to be done to protect civilians.

Some 70 Palestinians and five Israeli soldiers were killed on Tuesday.

One soldier was killed in an exchange of fire with militants in Gaza City, while four others were killed by shellfire from their own tanks earlier in the day, Israeli military officials said.

Israel says its offensive is stopping militants firing rockets, but at least five hit southern Israel on Tuesday, with one reaching the town of Gedera, about 40km (25 miles) from Gaza, and injuring a baby.

Three Israeli civilians and one soldier have been killed by rocket fire from the Gaza Strip since the offensive began 10 days ago.

'Mortar fire'

The UN aid agency in Gaza, Unrwa, said three artillery shells had landed close to the al-Fakhura school on Tuesday afternoon, spraying shrapnel on people both inside and outside the building.

About 350 people had sought refuge at the school in effort to escape the fighting between Israeli soldiers and militants on the outskirts of the refugee camp, to the east of Gaza City.

Television footage showed bodies scattered on the ground amid pools of blood.

Palestinian doctors at nearby hospitals had earlier said that at least 40 people had been killed. The Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya said 30 people had died there. A further 10 people died at the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, doctors said.

The UN officials said they regularly provided the Israeli military with exact co-ordinates of their facilities, and that the school was in a built-up area.

An Israeli military spokesman said that, according to initial checks, its soldiers had come under mortar fire from militants inside the school.

"In response, the forces fired a number of mortar rounds into the area," he told the Reuters news agency.

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said militants regularly hid among civilians inside such facilities or used them to launch attacks.

"According to our values and the instructions that we have in the army, the targets are Hamas targets. We try to avoid any kind of civilian casualties," she told reporters.

This was the second Israeli strike on a UN-run school in a day. Earlier, at least three Palestinians were killed when a school was hit in the Shati camp, UN officials said.

After the first attack, the director of operations for Unrwa, John Ging, said the conditions in Gaza were "horrific".

"Nowhere is safe for civilians here in Gaza at the moment. They are fleeing their homes and they are right to do it when you look at the casualty numbers."

"It's very, very dangerous, and even the 14,000 who have sought refuge in our schools and shelters, they are not safe either."

Mr Ging said international leaders had a responsibility to act to protect civilians.

"You cannot conduct huge military operations in such densely-populated places without killing hundreds and injuring thousands of civilians," he added.

Information about what is happening inside Gaza is limited as Israel has barred foreign reporters from entering.

'Time against us'
Diplomatic efforts to try to end the violence are gathering pace.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he had asked his Syrian counterpart, Bashar Assad, to help convince Hamas to co-operate with efforts to end the Israeli offensive. Syria is regarded as a main backer of Hamas.

When later asked about the deaths at UN school in Gaza, Mr Sarkozy said: "It reinforces my determination for all this to stop as quickly as possible. Time is working against us. We must find a solution."

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the US would like to see "an immediate ceasefire" in Gaza.

"An immediate ceasefire that is durable, sustainable and not time-limited," he told reporters in Washington, according to the Reuters news agency. "We want, obviously, to be constructive," he added.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to hold talks in New York with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who is going to the UN with several Arab foreign ministers to lobby for a ceasefire.

Hamas has said that Israeli attacks on Gaza must stop and the crossings into the territory, which Israel controls, must be fully opened, before it agrees to a ceasefire.

Israeli Prime Miniser Ehud Olmert said on Tuesday that the military campaign in Gaza would continue until Israel had completely wiped out Hamas's ability to fire rockets into Israel.

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The peasant bourgeoisie and their self righteous inclinations are the wests cancer!

So they deliberately hit the school! Well thats terrorism in my language.
The very thing they say they are fighting against, they are also using against the Palestinians.
Hypocracy I think is the word!

__________________
The peasant bourgeoisie and their self righteous inclinations are the wests cancer!

Its not looking good is it spike....the longer it goes on the more Israel look out of order

__________________
Some People say the most important thing
a fighter can have is heart.
show me a fighter who's nothing but heart,
and I'll show you a man waiting for a beating.
كافر