The U.N.’s human rights chief endorses the Gladstone Report, which accuses both Israeli forces and Palestinian militants of committing war crimes during last winter’s conflict in Gaza.

Turkish police detain 50 suspected members of the Islamic Jihad League, a group linked to Al Qaeda, who were allegedly plotting attacks on NATO installation sin Turkey and Germany.

A 48-year-old France Telecom engineer hangs himself, becoming the 25 employee of the company to commit suicide in the past 20 months. Many of the employees have left notes blaming stress at work as the company undergoes major restructuring.

Meeting with his South Korean counterpart at the White House, U.S. President Barack Obama voices strong support for sanctions aimed to prevent North Korea from developing nuclear weapons, while South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak states that “under no circumstances should North Korea be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons.”

Peru’s Prime Minister Yehude Simon announces his decision to resign in light of his handling of indigenous protests against a law making it easier for the government to take land for resource exploitation in the Amazon. Scores of protesters and police have been killed in the protests.

Ali Sa’id Sheik Hassan, Mogadishu’s chief of police is killed along with seven civilians amid continuing fighting between the Somali government and Islamic insurgent groups in the capital city.

Russia vetoes extending the United Nations monitoring force in the breakaway Georgian republic of Abkhazia. The 16-year mission will expire at the end of this month.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter meets with Hamas in Gaza, urging the group to take steps to end its international isolation.

The remainder of the Tamil Tigers announce they will regroup as a transnational government focused on increasing the strength of the Tamil diaspora with the same goal of creating a separate Tamil state.

The United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories calls Israel’s recent offensive in Gaza a war crime of the “greatest magnitude,” noting that the Geneva Conventions require warring parties to make a distinction between military and civilian targets.

Today marks the 6th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

NATO revives full diplomatic relations with Russia, which were cut off in August 2008 on account of Russia’s war with Georgia.

The wife of Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai is killed in a car accident; the prime minister himself suffers slight injuries.

Mauritania expels its Israeli ambassador in response to the recent military offensive in Gaza.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jeffery Feltman is expected to arrive in Syria tomorrow, for the highest-level diplomatic talks between the two nations in the past four years.

The U.S. plans to offer more than $900 million in aid to help rebuild Gaza after last month’s Israeli invasion; the funds will be distributed through the U.N. and other NGOs rather than through the Hamas-led government.

Iraq’s National Museum, which was decimated by looters in the wake of the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, reopens — but only to diplomats and other invited guests.

Japanese President Taro Aso becomes the first foreign head of state to meet with U.S. President Barack Obama in the White House.

Missiles started falling on Gaza the day I arrived in Amman, Jordan, to attend my cousin’s wedding and visit with family members I hadn’t seen in eight years. Then a few days later, Israeli ground troops entered Northern Gaza. From that moment on Gaza was all people talked about. CNN International, BBC, Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya–all the TV stations were reporting on Gaza around the clock. At family functions, my aunts, uncles, cousins and friends all engaged in heated discussions about the crisis. Every taxi driver had the radio tuned to the news. New Year’s Eve celebrations throughout the city were canceled in solidarity.

An estimated 60 percent of Jordanians are of Palestinian origin or descent—including my family. Palestinians were issued citizenship in Jordan following the wars of 1948 and 1967, when they fled to Amman as refugees. Historically, they’ve attempted to blend in, fearing that their Jordanian loyalty may be questioned. But now, almost 60 years later, the children and grandchildren of Palestinian refugees, who were born and raised in Jordan, are showing their Palestinian pride. Events in Gaza have mobilized the youth to express solidarity by participating in rallies throughout the city, and by wearing the keffiyeh, the traditional checkered scarf that you’ve seen worn by hipsters on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The black-and-white scarf is customarily worn by Palestinians, while the red-and-white version is worn in Jordan. Jordanians of Palestinian descent usually choose red, as part of their effort to assimilate. But at a hair salon I went to in Amman, the trendy hair dresser in Nike Dunks threading a woman’s eyebrows was wearing the black-and-white keffiyeh, and not around his neck, but around his head, in the traditional style usually only seen on older men. And in Amman’s most exclusive and chic mall, Al Baraka, young girls shopped for designer clutches sporting black-and-white keffiyehs togged around their necks.

During my stay in Amman, demonstrations and donation drives were taking place almost daily. Behind most mosques, tents were set up for people wishing to donate food, clothing, or blankets to Gazans.

On Friday, January 9th thousands in Jordan took to the streets in one of the strongest demonstrations since the Israeli military offensive began just over two weeks before. Approximately 10,000 people marched in downtown Amman, demanding the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador and an end to peace with Israel. Security forces fired tear gas at more than 2,000 protesters to prevent them from approaching the Israeli embassy. Water cannons were used to disperse some of the protesters. Al Jazeera television correspondent Yaser Abu Hilala, head of the Amman bureau, was beaten up by anti-riot police while covering a demonstration, though he claims to have clearly identified himself as a journalist.

Back at home in New York, the situation in Gaza seems far away. And comparatively, all eyes are not on Gaza. The story has been reduced to a short segment with recycled stock footage from Ramattan TV.

“Shifa Hospital has long ago ceased to be just a hospital,” Israeli Public Security Minister and former intelligence chief Avi Dichter said on Monday. “It is somewhat of an open secret that Hamas commanders walk around the hospital, in some instances wearing doctor’s robes,” Dichter said.

The allegations have not been independently confirmed by reporters on the ground–the Israeli military has banned foreign media from the Gaza Strip in what the Foreign Press Association has called an “unprecedented restriction of press freedom.”

But WIDE ANGLE reached a doctor in Gaza who believes Hamas officials are hiding either in the basement or in a separate underground area underneath the hospital and said that they moved there recently because other locations have been destroyed by Israel. The doctor, who asked not to be named, added that he believes Hamas is aware that they are putting civilians in harm’s way.

Asked for an update on the humanitarian situation in the hospital, the same doctor said that the daily three-hour window for delivery of supplies has helped somewhat–electricity and water are flowing more regularly, and hospitals have many of the supplies they need, but can always use more.

Dr. Hassan Khalaf, director of Shifa Hospital, says that 917 people have been killed in 17 days of fighting. Casualties number 4,215, and Shifa Hospital has only 600 beds.

In 2006, WIDE ANGLE reported from Shifa Hospital in the film Gaza E.R. Click here for a preview.

A doctor in Gaza confirmed that hospitals received much-needed supplies during today’s ceasefire, temporarily relieving them of the worst shortages. However, he said that serious problems do remain, namely the lack of electricity and reliable water.

The doctor, who asked not to be identified by name, blames Hamas as much as Israel for the current conflict, saying that “Hamas is in a corner and wants to escape. They want more martyrs, they want to explode the situation because it helps them gain support around the region. But people outside don’t understand the reality inside Gaza. We are waiting for the day that Hamas will be finished.”

Israel’s military operation in Gaza has entered its 12th day, with air strikes continuing and ground troops moving toward Gaza City and the southern city of Khan Younis. Intermittent rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel have also continued. While the Israeli Defense Forces have reported 7 soldiers killed in the fighting in Gaza, hundreds of casualties have been reported on the Palestinian side, and the wounded number in the thousands.

As always, Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital is in the center of the chaos. The largest hospital in the Gaza Strip, it receives many casualties and is packed with many more relatives and onlookers. When WIDE ANGLE reported from Shifa Hospital in 2007’s GAZA E.R., months of Israel’s blockade had rendered the facility desperate for supplies, medicine, stable electricity, and even blood for transfusions. Conflicts among Hamas and Fatah members, as well as among rival Palestinian factions, sometimes boiled over into violence inside the hospital.

WIDE ANGLE reported from Shifa Hospital in 2007 in GAZA E.R.

Here’s a preview of Gaza E.R.:

Lambert explains what it was like to shoot inside Shifa Hospital in the ‘eye of this huge international storm,’ the difficulties faced by Palestinians every day, and the culture shock one experiences when crossing from Israel into the Gaza Strip.

Olly Lambert’s Flickr Page

“Intimate and harrowing”
–United Feature Syndicate

“This just might be the most eye-opening, unforgettable documentary you will see this year.”
–Canwest News Service

About the Issue

As the Palestinians enter their 40th year of Israeli occupation, the divisions between their two main political factions – the moderate secular party Fatah and the militant Islamist organization Hamas – are as pronounced as ever. Sporadic fighting between the two rival factions intensified after the death of charismatic Fatah leader Yasser Arafat in November 2004. Following its landslide election victories in January 2006, Hamas, branded a terrorist group by the United States, Israel and the European Union, continued its refusal to recognize the Jewish state or to renounce its tactics of violence. The West responded with a crippling boycott, cutting off more than $1 billion in aid to Palestinians, and Israel not only closed Gaza’s borders but also restricted trade, making food, fuel, and medicine more expensive and increasingly scarce. Tensions between Hamas and Fatah grew after repeated failures to reach a deal to share government power, culminating in an outright civil war in June 2007 that split the Palestinian Territories into a Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and Fatah-dominated West Bank.

About the Film

In the summer of 2006, as internal battles fracture the Palestinian Territories, WIDE ANGLE provides a glimpse inside the conflict as it spirals out of control. Gaza E.R. follows doctors, nurses, and staff at Shifa Hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip, as they struggle in the face of turf wars between Hamas, rival faction Fatah, and powerful families with competing agendas. Our cameras reveal that gun-battles inside the hospital, massive shortages of pharmaceuticals and basic supplies, and unpaid salaries are routine occupational hazards at this medical outpost in the troubled Palestinian landscape.