For today, links to reports from the Associated Press, National Public Radio, and Reuters, followed by three pieces of commentary via Consortium News; others are accessible by clicking on the sources’ names or initials below. (Today’s UKRAINE entry is HERE.) — MCM
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Gaza’s main hospital goes dark in intense fighting as Israel’s attacks put it at odds with allies, by Wafaa Shurafa, Samy Magy and David Rising | AP DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Israel’s prime minister pushed back today against calls from Western allies to do more to protect Palestinian civilians, as troops encircled Gaza’s largest hospital where doctors said five patients died, including a premature baby, after the last generator ran out of fuel. Israel has portrayed Shifa Hospital as Hamas’ main command post, saying . . . READ MORE . . .
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Attacks on Gaza’s biggest hospital intensify. Reported by Lauren Frayer | NPR Israel’s counterattacks on Gaza have pummeled the territory’s largest hospital. The Israeli military says Hamas’ command center lies beneath it. Click HERE to listen and, later, read.
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Gaza official says two patients, including baby, died at hospital besieged by Israel, by Nidal Al-Mughrabi | Reuters GAZA — A baby died in an incubator at Gaza’s largest hospital after the facility lost power, and another person was killed by an Israeli shell in intensive care, a spokesperson for the Palestinian health ministry said today. Residents said Israel’s military had been fighting Hamas gunmen all night in and around Gaza City where. . . READ MORE . . .
Gaza’s largest hospital sheltering thousands is rocked by an explosion. Reported by Greg Myre | NPR An explosion rocks the courtyard in the largest hospital in Gaza. Also, Israeli troops surround several other hospitals as it accuses Hamas of hiding in tunnels below the medical facilities. Click HERE to listen and, later, read.
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NEWER Hospitals in Israel move underground to keep working amid rockets from Lebanon. Reported by Elissa Nadworny, Claire Harbage and Sawsan Khalife | NPR NAHARIYA, Israel — When you visit the Galilee Medical Center in northern Israel, you can hardly tell you’re underground. There are nursing stations, hospital beds and a separate neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU. There are familiar . . . Click HERE to listen and read.
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NEWER Why it’s so hard for journalists to report from Gaza. Scott Simon of NPR speaks with Sherif Mansour, Middle East and North Africa program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, about the difficulties in reporting in Gaza. Click HERE to listen and, later, read.
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Who’s to blame for the war between Israel and Hamas? Jordanian women look to America. Reported by Erika Ryan, Matt Ozua, Courtney Dorning and Mary Louise Kelly | NPR Kelly talks with four women who are social influencers in Amman, Jordan — where the majority of the population is of Palestinian origin — about their thoughts on the war in Israel. Click HERE to listen and read.
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The right of self-defense, by Craig Murray | CraigMurray.org.uk / Consortium News Israel does have the right of self-defence, but only in precisely the same way other countries do. In fact, the only unique factor about Israel here is that it is the only country to have been found by the International Court of Justice specifically to have abused and exceeded the concept of right of self-defence, in its treatment of the Palestinians. In 2004 . . . READ MORE . . .
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Are you human like us? by Vijay Prashad | Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research / Consortium News Israeli tanks have begun to encircle Gaza City, whose population was 600,000 a month ago but whose neighbourhoods are now largely vacant due to the desperate flight of its inhabitants to Gaza’s southern shelters and due to Israel’s killing of thousands of Palestinian civilians in their homes. Israel has . . . READ MORE . . .
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Blades of grass, by Elizabeth Murray | Consortium News A dangerously sociopathic attitude is prevalent whether cloaked in a cheap joke or reflected in the failure by the State Department spokesman to condemn or even acknowledge the criminality of Israel’s latest aerial and sea-based bombardment of Palestinian civilians, at least 18 of whom have been killed in the past 48 hours. Three Israelis also have died in retaliatory . . . READ MORE. . . .