"Were you surprised by the eruption of war in Gaza?
"No, I could see it coming. I went there [last] April and helped to work out the cease-fire that began on the 19th of June and that was obeyed almost completely by the Palestinians for five months. Israel didn’t do what it promised to do: provide adequate food and medicine and so forth. When I saw that the cease-fire was going to expire on the 19th of December, I went back over there. I spent a good deal of time in Lebanon because [the Carter Center] plans to monitor the Lebanese election, but I also went to Damascus and met with the Hamas people. They informed me that they would cease the rockets if Israel would start supplying the necessary food, water, fuel and medicine. My representatives made this proposal to Israeli leaders in the defense department, who said they would only supply 15% of the normal level of supplies [emphasis added]— the level that was maintained when Israel was in charge of Gaza, which is about 750 trucks a day."
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The foregoing comment does not address the post directly. The post refers to Israel's refusal to lift its blockade of Gaza.
As to the claims of anonymous, this is accurate statement of what the UN agency said:
http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/5301175/un-retracts-claim-strike-hit-gaza-school/
"The United Nations has retracted a claim that an Israeli strike which killed more than 40 people in northern Gaza city of Jabaliya last month hit a school run by a UN agency.
"The humanitarian coordinator would like to clarify that the shelling, and all of the fatalities, took place outside rather than inside the school," the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in its latest weekly update on the situation in Gaza.
"It stressed that its initial report of the January 6 incident correctly stated that Israeli shells hit outside the school run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, but that it later referred to "the shelling of the UNRWA school in Jabaliya."
"The Israeli military initially said its forces had responded to hostile fire from within the UN school but later reportedly retracted that statement.
"The attack sparked widespread outrage in the midst of Israel's deadly offensive in Gaza."
Notwithstanding IDF claims, the fact is that about 40 civilians were killed in the incident, leaving important questions about proportionality and discrimination under accepted rules of war.
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