Things we watch

Israel is banning foreign correspondents from Gaza, despite a ruling from the Israeli Supreme Court.The Israeli propaganda effort is being directed to achieve two main aims.The first is to justify the air attacks. The second is to show that there is no humanitarian calamity in Gaza. So writes Paul Reynolds World affairs correspondent of the BBC. And he points out what it seems to be an example of propaganda. The video remains on You Tube.

Israel released video of an air attack on 28 December, which appeared to show rockets being loaded onto a lorry. The truck and those close to it were then destroyed by a missile. The YouTube video has a large caption on it saying "Grad missiles being loaded onto the Hamas vehicle." But a 55-year-old Gaza resident named Ahmed Sanur, or Samur, claimed that the truck was his and that he and members of his family and his workers were moving oxygen cylinders from his workshop. Mr Sanur said that eight people, one of them his son, had been killed.

Israeli human rights group B'Tselem put Mr Sanur's account on its website, together with a photograph of burned out oxygen cylinders. According to Sanur’s testimony, he and members of his family were trying to salvage material from a metal workshop he owns, which was next door to a bombed house, in order to prevent looting. He denies any connection to militants, or military activity, and is willing to talk to any journalist, or investigator.



Thanks to Andrius for sending the story.

Some extra analisis, in spanish, here.