Instead mainstream media has generally acted as an accomplice to Israel's crimes by either abstaining from mentioning the context of the conflict or portraying a misleading context when reporting the Middle East conflict. Whether intentionally or unwittingly, the media has sponsored a number of fallacies and even myths when covering the recent massacre.

No-longer-occupied Gaza:

Israeli officials repeatedly claim that they no longer occupy Gaza. But what are we to understand from that claim? Is Gaza an independent sovereign state with full control of its borders, airspace and sea? The fact that the Israeli army (ironically called 'Israeli Defence Force') is no longer patrolling the streets of tiny but populated Gaza does not make the besieged strip free of occupation.

Retreating from inside the totally occupied area to surrounding positions, Israel has not ended its occupation of Gaza under any law including its own. About 1.5 million people living in a small area surrounded by a ruthless army that has 'fully' occupied them for over 38 years and can come back in whenever it feels like it to commit any inhuman action it pleases is not the concept of 'no-longer-occupied' that would spring to mind to the average Western observer. The fact is, the unholy Israeli presence has never left the God-tested strip.

As a follow up to their claim of no longer occupying Gaza, the Israeli authorities demand that Palestinians living in the strip should no longer engage in military action against Israel. But even if Gaza were suddenly (if not magically) to become an independent sovereign state with full control of its economy, borders, and the rest, such a demand should never escape the scrutiny of free objective media. It's like Bin Laden asking the people of Texas not to antagonise al-Qaeda because his followers never targeted the southern state in the tragic terrorists' attacks of 9/11.

Imagine if Nazi Germany had occupied London during World War II, would it be understandable if Hitler were to ask, say the people of Manchester not to help out the Londoners because his troops were not marching in the streets of Manchester?

What has also escaped the attention of many journalists, and a greater number of lawyers I might add, is the fact that ceasing to do a crime that you've been continuously doing for over 38 years does not give you immunity from punishment. Like the unforgivably monstrous sponsors of the Holocaust, the equally ugly mass murdering occupiers must be brought to justice and shame.

Rockets from civilian areas:

Another repeated claim that goes unnoticed is the idea that Palestinian militants are firing at the Israeli army or at Israel from civilian areas. Not many have bothered to point out that in a small land that has been occupied and severely controlled for over 38 years there is no such thing as a military area. It's not a case of two countries at war. There is no Palestinian army. Those 'militants' are in effect civilians fighting occupation from their homes. Risky and unadvisable as it may be, they do not see a credible alternative way to obtain liberation.

However, if Israel acknowledges that it is 'hitting back' at civilian areas, why aren't there cries of 'terrorism' in Western media? Is this a green light for terrorists that see it as acceptable to kill innocent civilians if there is a non-civilian among them?

Israel's security:

Although they certainly are perusing counter-productive methods, Israel has the right to be concerned about its own security. However, to expect the Palestinians to give a hand is like anticipating invaded Poland to give a damn about Nazi Germany's security phobia. From the perspective of his generals, Hitler had legitimate security concerns, too.

At the end of the day, invading or occupying powers are human too, even if their actions appear to be far from it. But shouldn't people, or countries in this matter, be more concerned with the security of the invaded or occupied party instead? Do you go to the bullied child and ask him/her not to push back? Not for the concern that it would make matters worse for the bullied child, but because it might discomfort the bulling child.

Qassam rockets:

'If it wasn't for the Qassam rockets,' the Israelis would like us to believe, 'none of this would have happened.' But it did happen before. Countless number of times, throughout Israel's 38-year long occupation, and certainly long before the invention of those so called rockets, Israel has committed one atrocity after another. But most journalists and editors fail to mention that. They just nod their heads as Israeli officials make their - what should be -unbelievable statements.

That's probably why the people of Gaza (and the rest of Palestine) seem - and in some cases indeed are - suicidal. They can't bank on international organisations or world media to save them. Even during those instances where the whole world appears to side with them, they have not been rescued from this torturing never-ending occupation. Here's a word that would sum up the context of the whole Middle East conflict; occupation.


* Mamoon Alabbasi is a freelance journalist and editor for Middle-East-Online.com and AlarabOnline.org - He can be reached at: alabbasi@journalist.com

He stressed that the ceasefire is mutual and synchronous, noting that "Israel stops its military operations in Gaza and the West Bank, while Palestinian militants stop firing rockets at Israel."

"The agreement also needs the acceptance of both Fatah and Hamas movements," he added.

On Monday, the Israeli army launched a ground military operation into northern Gaza Strip, where 12 Palestinians have been killed and more than 20 others wounded in the latest Israeli operation.

As Palestinian militants continued to launch rockets against southern Israeli cities, Israel decided on Wednesday to continue its military operations in Gaza.

"We talked about the rocket fire. There is an agreement to stop the fire in exchange for a halt to Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza," the Jihad spokesman said after inter-faction talks.

"This idea will be transmitted to the Israelis by Abu Mazen (Abbas). If they accept, there will perhaps be a stop to fire on Israeli towns but not a general truce," Khader Habib added.

But Israel did not accept the offer, with government spokeswoman Miri Eisin describing it as a "partial ceasefire" impossible to take seriously.

"The suggestion concerns a partial ceasefire, limited to rocket fire from the Gaza Strip in exchange for a total halt to Israeli operations on all fronts. This is not serious," she told AFP.

"Israel has always aspired to an end to violence and we count on a change of attitude from the Palestinians and primarily Hamas in order to give development a priority in the Gaza Strip instead of continued attacks," she added.

The army, meanwhile, said three rockets fired from the territory exploded in Israel overnight, one of which damaged a commercial centre in the town of Sderot, where two people have died in such attacks in the last 10 days.

A spokesman for the Islamist movement Hamas, which heads the internationally boycotted Palestinian government, and an independent MP involved in the faction talks said there could be no way forward if Israel remained intransigent.

"There is no chance of a truce as long as the enemy aggression continues," said Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum.

"If the enemy agrees to withdraw from the zones it is occupying and top its operations, we can look at something else," he added.

Independent MP Mustapha Barghuti lashed out, branding the Israeli reaction "very discouraging".

"Israel is responsable for the cycle of violence. Each time Palestinians want an end of violence, Israel refuses. Israel is the one that does not want to stop the cycle of violence," he told AFP in Gaza City.

The Jihad spokesman had said that Hamas, Abbas's Fatah movement, his own faction and the Popular and Democratic Fronts for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP and DFLP) had accepted the agreement.

A spokesman for the cabinet headed by Hamas, whose armed wing on Thursday claimed its first suicide attack in almost two years when a grandmother blew herself up in Gaza, also said there was willingness for a mutual halt.

"The Palestinian groups are ready to stop the rocket fire if Israel agrees to stop all forms of aggression. If there is such a halt, there will be a halt to the (rocket fire)," said Ghazi Hamad.

But Tawfiq Abu Khussa, a spokesman for Fatah said talks needed more time, saying the movement was talking about an "unconditional" halt to violence.

Israeli troops have stepped up an air and ground offensive in the northern Gaza Strip in a bid to counter near daily Palestinian rocket attacks.

Ayman Juda, 22, a Hamas militant was killed by Israeli fire in Beit Lahiya, a medic said. An army spokeswoman said she was "checking" the report.

Seven Palestinians, including at least four militants, were killed by Israeli fire in the territory on Thursday.

"Israel has always aspired to an end to violence and we count on a change of attitude from the Palestinians and primarily Hamas in order to give development a priority in the Gaza Strip instead of continued attacks," she added.

The army, meanwhile, said three rockets fired from the territory exploded in Israel overnight, one of which damaged a commercial centre in the southern town of Sderot, where two people have recently been killed by such attacks.

A spokesman for the ultra-radical Islamic Jihad group said late Thursday that Palestinian factions were ready to stop firing rockets into Israel if the Jewish state ends its operations in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

"We talked (with Palestinian groups) about the rocket fire. There is an agreement to stop the fire in exchange for a halt to Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza," said Khader Habib.

"If the Palestinian terror factions, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, stop terror activities from the Gaza Strip, Israel would have no reason or incentive to operate in Gaza," said government spokeswoman, Miri Eisin.


Palestinian factions in Gaza late on Thursday had offered to stop firing rockets if Israel halted military action in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Israel rejected the offer.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh told reporters it was up to Israel to respond positively.

"The issue should not be seen as if there is a Palestinian army with an arsenal of rockets ... The issue is that there is an unarmed Palestinian people who are subject to Israeli aggression," he said.

Palestinian hospital officials said the boy was shot dead east of the town of Beit Lahiya. Israel's army said it was not aware of the incident. Hamas said the other dead Palestinian was a militant and cameraman from the faction's armed wing who filmed Hamas fighters in action.

Israel has killed nearly 400 Palestinians in Gaza, about half of them civilians, since it began its offensive in June following the abduction of an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid, hospital officials and residents say.

Three Israeli soldiers have been killed.

ROW OVER UNITY GOVERNMENT

The fresh fighting coincides with a visit to Gaza by President Mahmoud Abbas of the once-dominant Fatah faction, who has been meeting Haniyeh to try to revive talks on forging a unity government.

Haniyeh is a member of the Hamas movement, which ousted Fatah in elections earlier this year and has resisted international pressure to renounce violence and recognise the state of Israel.


Hamas accused Abbas on Friday of imposing what it called unacceptable conditions for a unity cabinet, including the release of a captured Israeli soldier and a halt to attacks on Israel.

Palestinians hope a unity government will convince Western nations to renew aid to the Palestinian Authority after sanctions were imposed because of Hamas's refusal to recognise Israel and renounce violence.

"Mr Abu Mazen (Abbas) has started putting new conditions which were not included in the understandings and agreements we have concluded to form a unity government," said a Hamas statement from Damascus, where many of its leaders live in exile.

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior Abbas aide, said Hamas had "invented" the idea the president was imposing new terms, saying they had been on the table for months.

"This is the latest trick by the Hamas leadership to portray itself to the public as not being responsible for the destruction of the internal Palestinian situation," he said.

Haniyeh was more upbeat, saying the "true intention" of the talks was to reach an agreement.

(Additional reporting by Ari Rabinovitch in Jerusalem, Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah and Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Damascus)

The sources said that Fatema al-Najjar, a 55-year-old member of Hamas armed wing, carried an explosive belt and walked towards the Israeli army forces, who are operating into northern Gaza Strip, and blew herself up.

An Israeli army spokesman confirmed that a Palestinian female suicide bomber blew herself up near an Israeli army force east of Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip, and wounded four Israeli soldiers.

Shortly before the suicide bombing attack, three Palestinians were killed in two separate strikes in northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian security sources said.

Two militants, who were in a car travelling in northern Gaza Strip, were killed when an Israeli aircraft fired one rocket that had directly hit the car, the sources said.

A third Palestinian was killed in Israeli artillery shelling on northern Gaza Strip.

Palestinian medics said the death toll of Palestinians that were killed in a daylong of violence with Israelis reached to seven, including the suicide bomber woman, four militants and two civilians.

The statement is the latest twist in months of on-off talks between Abbas and Hamas to try to form a coalition government that they hope will succeed in lifting eight months of Western financial sanctions.

"Abu Mazen (Abbas), has started putting new conditions which were not included in the understandings and agreements we have concluded to form a unity government," it said.

"The issue of calming down armed resistance was not on the table and should not be raised at this time," The statement said. "Hamas had announced it is ready to stop rocket attacks if Zionist aggression and assassinations stop."

Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior aide to Abbas, denied that Abbas had imposed new terms.

Hamas said it had not received guarantees from Abbas that the West would recognise the proposed government and lift sanctions.

The United States and European Union cut off direct aid to the Palestinian Authority in March after Hamas won elections. Hamas, an Islamist group that is sworn to Israel's destruction, is listed as a terrorist organisation by the U.S. and EU.

The hope is that a new government that unites "technocrats" and members of Fatah, which is more moderate than Hamas, might open the way for the sanctions to be lifted and for the government to again receive desperately needed Western aid.

Even if it is formed, there is no certainty that the sanctions, which have increased poverty throughout the West Bank and Gaza, where 3.8 million people live, will be lifted.

Hamas and Fatah had on Monday suspended negotiations over the formation of the government after disagreement emerged over the distribution of key ministries.

Fatah wants independent "experts" to take them over.


Hamas said in its statement that although it has agreed with Fatah to exclude leading politicians from the new cabinet, it should not be comprised totally of independents.

"This will not be purely technocratic government," it said.

"The new government must not be linked to other issues, such as a ceasefire or the captured soldier. Hamas is deeply worried about attempts to go beyond the bases agreed on with Fatah," the statement said.

"Linking the soldier issue with the proposed government damages Palestinian interests," it said.