• Israeli airstrikes have continued into today. The death toll of the attacks is now at 285, with 900 injured — 180 seriously so. [Ma'an]
• Israel has just started bombing the area around the Rafah crossing, and bombing the tunnels into Egypt. Gaza residents have breached the border in at least five places along the 9 mile (14 kilometer) boundary, leading hundreds of Palestinians to pour into Egypt. In response, Egyptian border guards have opened fire on them. At least 300 Egyptian border guards have now been rushed to the area to reseal the border. [Haaretz]
• Scores of protesters in Beirut have tried to approach the Egyptian embassy to demand Egypt open up its borders to Gaza. In response, police have used tear gas to stop the demonstrators approaching. Other protests were found in London, Madrid, Baghdad, Cairo, Tehran, and Sanaa. Yemen has agreed to send a ship with humanitarian aid to Gaza. [AFP]
• Israel Air Force warplanes have now flown over south Lebanon and set off somic booms. [Haaretz]
• A Haaretz journalist is revealing that Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the IDF to prepare for the operation over six months ago, even as Israel was beginning to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. This “disinformation effort,” according to defense officials, took Hamas by surprise and served to significantly increase the number of its casualties in the strike. [Haaretz]
• After finally appearing from his little visit with the Zionist Saudis while Gaza was being scorched yesterday, Mahmoud Abbas (now speaking from Cairo) has the audacity to say that Hamas could have avoided the Israeli attacks on Gaza. “We talked to them and we told them ‘please, we ask you, do not end the truce. Let the truce continue and not stop’ so that we could have avoided what happened.” [Alternet]
• Even as the looming Israeli attack was being predicted by all, Hamas didn’t think to vacate their offices. Why? The Egyptians had assured Hamas that there would be no Israeli attack in the coming days. And Hamas believed them. [Angry Arab]
• At the Daily Kos, there still exists a blogger who didn’t go on that free trip to Sderot and/or has yet to receive a ban by the liberal Daily Kos board! I’m about to die of shock at this good story, generating 2000+ comments — the majority actually decent — along with some Little Green Footballs ire (of course). [Daily Kos]
• Still, that changes absolutely nothing about my general hatred of liberal blogs. [Huffington Post]

[Tarboush Tip: Body on the Line, Mhmd, Diana, Alvaro, Angry Arab]

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2. Gaza Blackout – Day 2
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5. Breaking: Israeli incursion into Gaza