Following what was a another relatively quiet day in Gaza the official death toll remained stubbornly frozen at 350 although local sources put it closer to 400 as the Israeli air force carried out a reduced number of raids. Hamas have continued to be able to fire rockets into Israel including one which landed in the town of Beersheba 46km inside Israel, the furthest that any Gazan rocket has reached. There have been no reports of any injuries or fatalities in any of the rocket attacks.
The main story of the day has been the Israeli rejection of a French call for a 48 hour ceasefire made during a meeting of EU Foreign ministers. Ostensibly this call was made to allow humanitarian relief to be delivered to Gaza, however in reality it was made because European governments, the UK included are having trouble keeping up with the pace of the conflict. You see far from being surprised by Israel's action European governments had one to two months of prior knowledge of Operation Cast Lead and rather then using that time to diffuse the conflict there were perfectly happy to allow it to continue having been sold on the idea that the could exploit the conflict to gather information on and possibly influence Israels upcoming election. Obviously it was a little naive of them to think that a race between a former spy, a former commando and a former head of the army to see who would lead a country where there are a lot of votes in dead Arabs was going to following the civilised traditions of western democracy. Now that Israel have rejected the ceasefire they have been able to flip the game and exploit the war to find new ways to cement support for Israel within European governments. Britain, always keen to show that they're never bullied by the bigger boys, have rolled straight over and put out this story which can be summarised by the keywords; BRIGHTON, AMBULANCE MEN, CRIMINAL CHARGES.
Diplomatic stupidity aside I think it will be very difficult to get Israel to agree to any ceasefire or non-homicidal resolution to the Gaza conflict for reason best illustrated by the Israel government statement that they will continue until there is no longer the capability for rockets to be launched into Israel. To put this in context you have to understand just what the Qassam rockets they're fighting are. Qassams are a very rudimentary weapon with a 3ft by 9inch tubular metal body often fashioned from street lamps and drainage pipes packed with a home made propellant charge which could be anything from gunpowder to weedkiller and an equally improvised explosive charge. They have no guidance system and are "aimed" by firing them off an angled ramp much like a bottle rocket. The technology behind them is so basic that they can be built and launched by pretty much anyone. This simplicity means that the only way Israel is going to prevent Qassams being launched is by removing the raw materials of which they've made. In short Israels current war is a war against metal and is probably more dumb the President Bushes war against the abstract noun.
Speaking of (still) President Bush the United States has pledged $85million of humanitarian aid to help Palestinian refugees. It is not yet clear if the US intends to exert it's considerable influence of Israel to make sure this aid is delivered to those Palestinians who desperately need it within Gaza or whether they just plan to pile it up on the Egyptian side of the border under a big neon sign reading; "Look you can have food just as soon as you cleanse the holy land of your dirty Arab feet."
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