'Telegenic' Deaths and Other Sunday Updates

Updates:  Terrific new piece by Israeli writer who answers demands by friends there about why they should be for ending attacks on Gaza, even unilaterally.  She offers one reason after another, including why it's not just the moral choice--but very much in Israel's best interest.  

James Fallows tweets:  "When strategic message becomes ‘They’re forcing us to kill children,’ strategy is in trouble. As US learned."   See Vietnam-Gaza image above.

Photos of worldwide protests on Sunday, some massive (such as in Chicago).

Live feed from UN as Palestinian and Israeli ambassadors speak and vote to be held on Jordan proposal.

476 dead in Gaza, 3100 injured.  At least one-quarter kids.

This CNN story purports to tell inside story of why NBC actually withdrew Ayman Mohyeldin from Gaza the other day (he is back, see below and follow him).  They key section might be on NBC feeling, for ratings, viewers more "comfortable" with a Richard Engel on air.  NBC wanted Ayman make statement "whitewashing" the episode but he refused.

Hamas announces it has captured Israeli--something that usually triples Israel attacks and resolve.  Anne Barnard of NYT:  "Scattered celebratory gunfire in Gaza City as Hamas announces it captured an Israeli soldier, Cheers and shouts of 'God is great.'" But Israel denies this has happened.

Earlier Sunday: Netanyahu on CNN correctly calls situation "insane"--but means only rockets to Israel.   Then says he's "sad about every civilian casualty" and only mistakes, but Hamas is using “telegenically dead Palestinians.” (He is approvingly citing a Krauthammer quote, it seems.) The "more dead the better."

Ayman Mohyeldin, who was pulled out of Gaza by NBC (for some reason) has just returned and is tweeting fron hospital after today's massacre.  First tweet: "Back inside #Gaza. Went straight to morgue. Emotional scene as families identify & claim bodies of the killed in #Israeli attacks."  See @AymanM

What's being described as "the massacre in  Shujayeh" neighborhood in Gaza, in heaviewt bombardment of war, with at least 60 dead today from Israeli shelling.  “Bodies were on the street, body parts everywhere. We couldn’t help them, we had to leave.”  Photo of mother who lost child.  More from The Guardian.    

NYT on its home page: "Casualties growing on both sides."  That is, two more Israeli soldiers and more than 140 Gazans.  No NYT front-page story, just "refer" line at bottom: "Hamas Slips Through Tunnels."  Wash Post headline on front page: "2 Israeli Soldiers Killed in Gaza."   Netanyahu on CNN just now: "If you look at our response it's actually very measured."

I noted the claim, and ran photo, a few days back back but now seems confirmed, as this Guardian story this morning attests.  "The Israeli military is using flechette shells, which spray out thousands of tiny and potentially lethal metal darts, in its military operation in Gaza.  Six flechette shells were fired towards the village of Khuzaa, east of Khan Younis, on 17 July, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. Nahla Khalil Najjar, 37, suffered injuries to her chest, it said. PCHR provided a picture of flechettes taken by a fieldworker last week. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) did not deny using the shells in the conflict."

Sharif Kouddous of Democracy Now! tweets:  "At Shifa hospital two children, 9 & 7 years old, lie dead. Arguments about IDing boy b/c his head is blown off. 'Is it Hamza or "Khalil?'"  Anne Barnard of NYT tweets:  "In ER, girl, 9?, lies still, staring. No relative w/her. Docs gently check pulse, again & again, until it's time. A white sheet & she's gone."

Photo below of video journalist Khaled Hamad killed last night in Gaza.  Note shirt.  His father at his funeral.