Hamas aid cutoff: Israeli attacks kill 16 including 2 children

Over the last four days, from Friday to today, Israeli shelling has killed 16 Palestinians including two Palestinian Children, one girl inside her home and a young boy near a car hit by rockets in Rafah. This massive offensive coincides with the Israeli announcement that they are cutting off connections with the Palestinian government and ruling out any negotiations with any member of the current Palestinian Authority including Abbas.

Meanwhile, many American news sources like the AP reported the attacks over the weekend as a small paragraph in other articles. Locally, the Baltimore Sun mentioned the deaths of 14 Palestinians including one child on Friday and Saturday in the 12th paragraph of a story entitled Olmert aides OK Ending Ties.

This disproportionate weight in the value of Palestinian versus Israeli life can only cause the increased desperation of Palestinians, as they are increasingly isolated from direct and even indirect aid from the US and Europe even as Israel increasingly isolates those from the West Bank from Gaza. The reactionary elements of both Palestinian and Israeli armed wings will surely be emboldened by this new status quo, as I have argued before.

Remember These Children has yet to update its list of dead Israeli and Palestinian children to keep up with this weekend's carnage. They do, however, show the death of "Mohammed Farid Hassan Zayed, 15, of Qalandya refugee camp, Ramallah District... Killed by an Israeli patrol with five live bullets to the lower part of his body" on April 3rd.