PERWI

A fierce battle has erupted in Gaza City as the Israeli army engages in heavy exchanges of fire with Hamas resistance fighters.

Israel's army had reportedly trained on a model of Gaza City for 18 months before starting the ground offensive in the densely-populated Strip.

According to Israeli military spokesman Avi Benayahou, Israel used a model of the main city built at an army base in the Negev desert to train its soldiers for a ground operation.

"Our soldiers know all the back streets where their targets are," military spokesman Avi Benayahou told Israeli public television on Monday. [read more]

First of all, as you all know, technology is changing everyday. There's always something new coming out and there's always something different to try. It's not always pertinent that you go along with those changes, but here are some reasons why you may want to. You need a new computer if:

there are 7 reasons that will show you need to buy a new computer [read more]

PKR has today lodged a report relating to a slew of cases involving top politicians to test the newly-minted Malaysian Anti-Corruption Agency (MACC).

Party supreme council member Badrul Hisham Shaharin submitted a stack of documents to MACC's assistant investigation officer Hasrul Shahrin Abdul Yazid at the commissions headquarters in Putrajaya this morning. [watch video]

Haaretz reports that, as Israeli ground forces entered Gaza yesterday, “hundreds of shells were fired, including cluster bombs aimed at open areas.” FireDogLake’s Siun writes, “The use of cluster bombs — which have a large footprint when initially dropped and then remain a threat for decades — in a location like the Gaza Strip which is so packed with people is horrifying.” (FDL notes that video footage seems to confirm the use of cluster bombs.) Last summer, a former Israeli defense official said that “the Israeli military used cluster bombs for two weeks during the 2006 Lebanon war without telling the Israeli government.” At the time, the UN decried the use of the bombs as “completely immoral.” [read more]

Just like in South Lebanon, Just like what the American did in Afghanistan & Iraq,

Will the Israelis leave booby traps in the form of cluster bombs like in South Lebanon & like what the British did in Kosovo? [read more]

Providing a summary of the events of the past week from the West Bank and Israel, Jesse Rosenfeld, freelance journalist based in Ramallah and Tel Aviv speaks on the Gaza attack. He connects the upcoming Israeli election to the motivation behind the bombing of Gaza which in the past week killed 420 and injured over 1300. Rosenfeld says Ehud Barak decided to carry out Operation Cast Lead, the name given to the attack, at this time to boost his votes for the February 10 election. During election years, politicians known to take the most hard-line position against Palestinians tend to gain more seats in the Israeli Knesset. Operation Cast Lead now threatens to escalate into a ground invasion as Israel amasses its troops and tanks at the Gaza border.

Jesse Rosenfeld is a Canadian freelance journalist who has been based in Ramallah since 2007. A former news editor at the McGill Daily and a founding editor of the Montreal Magazine Siafu, Rosenfeld has written for NOW Magazine, The Montreal Mirror, THIS Magazine and the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. [watch video]