More LIVE Updates from Gaza!
1 pm EET – There are two hurdles for women in a war zone. Flak jackets and outdoor bathrooms. The man from the flak jacket company brought several flaks, all of them too big for me. I guess there’s not much of a market for women’s petite in the flak jacket industry. I got fitted for a small flak jacket today. My producer Osnat helped to measure me. “You don’t need to blog about this one,” she says to me before measuring.
2 pm — As I drive out to the border, there are still tanks being transported on flat bed trucks. Some of these tanks are placed in storage facilities with humidifiers inside the tanks. This way the tanks are battle-ready and can be used at a moment’s notice.
3:30 pm — I pull up to the hotel near the border where our FOX News crew is staying. Ian Rafferty, my producer, tells me to check in first. Journalists from all over the world are here, and there’s some worry there won’t be enough rooms.
The hotel isn’t allowed to use rooms on higher levels that are within range of rocket attacks. Obviously with rockets falling from the sky, the higher floors are more likely to be hit first. It’s one of the few times you don’t want to be on the top floor.
Ian has been to Baghdad. He covered the 2006 Lebanon war from Israel. He gets combat coverage. He promises to help me move one of my mattresses up against the window of my room. This way if a rocket lands nearby the mattress will help absorb any shrapnel or glass from shattered windows. It’s not perfect, but it’s better than nothing. Truth is, if there’s a direct hit on the hotel the mattress really won’t help much.
4pm — We’re at the border with the rest of our FOX crew. David Lee Miller is doing a live shot for America’s Newsroom.
I walk over to our Middle East Bureau Chief Eli Fastman. He has set up a makeshift office (he prefers the term ‘command post’) with a folding chair, binoculars, and a liter of bottled water. He was the one who discovered this location. Kind of funny — now dozens of international TV journalists are swarming the place. Eli gets war and the Mideast. And second only to perhaps Greta, he doesn’t sleep. He’s here pretty much 24 hours a day.
We’re hearing that a United Nations school was hit by an Israeli missile. UN officials on the ground here can’t reach people in Gaza. Phone lines are cut. There were 40 Palestinians killed in that attack; 55 injured.
Israeli army says they received mortar fire from the school and returned fire. They also say senior Hamas militants were killed. Hamas TV hasn’t announced if any senior militants were killed, and it’s hard for us to independently confirm it.
UN is calling for an independent investigation. They say they carefully vet anyone who enters these shelters, and there’s no way Hamas would’ve been allowed in.
The director of UN relief efforts in Gaza, John Ging, says the Israeli military was given the GPS coordinates for all UN schools and shelters.
Keep checking back for the latest EXCLUSIVE coverage from Gaza!
Reena Ninan is a correspondent for FNC, spending the majority of her
time in the Middle East. She provided on-site updates of Iraq's first
parliamentary elections and coverage of Saddam Hussein's trial from
Baghdad. 
The greatest scam in all of this is how Hamas WILL fire from civilian entities to allow the propaganda to continue. Sadly it *is* a good strategy for them but it will make the Isreali forces seem more barbaric in the eyes of the world.
I hope Isreal/Media can be brave enough to see proof of this because that is what this is really about; Hamas’ willingness to sell-out/kill their own people in an effort to get more support in order to kill more Jews.
Will this be a focus? Probably not.
Reena,
I think the UN has some explaining to do as to why were Hamas militants in or near a UN school. Is this not the UN aiding a terrorist organisation?
If the UN is aiding a terrorist organisation, I don’t want any of my Feeral Tax money going to the UN
I hope Isreal will not stop till they kill all the bad guys there! Go Isreal !!! If you do not like this – How would you like it if some thugs were sending rockets in your town all the time?
Go Isreali !!!!! fight fight fight!!
I was watching C-Span last night, and they had a roundtable discussion on the June, 1967 “6-Day” war with Dennis Ross speaking about diplomacy then and now. The roundtable happened over a year ago, but it remained cogent when discussing the Israeli mindset. This little conflagration is about two things: setting back Hamas, if not outrightly crushing it, and regaining the Israeli deterrent that was considered at least damaged after the mini-Lebanon war against Hezbollah. Regaining the Israeli deterrent is something of a rallying cry in Israeli military circles today — something that is lost in the reporting on the conflict.
I expect that the US’s tolerance for Israeli actions in Gaza now might be a quid pro quo for Israel’s forbearance from attacking Iran. I’m thinking Bush said “Don’t attack Iran until you’ve given Obama a chance to settle in and have his own discussions with you on the matter” and Olmert, et al. responded with “If we agree not to attack Iran for the time being, then you must agree to not stand in the way of a Gaza operation.” I think this, besides being feasible, helps explain both the complete disconnect between the US and continental Europe on the issue (the Czech leadership of the EU notwithstanding) and the nonchalance of the Israelis in the face of the Europeans’ efforts.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: Militant Islam Threatens Us All
Hamas rockets have the same terror goal as Hitler’s blitz. Oxymoronically: A voice from America’s silent majority. Militant Israel Threatens us All Israel’s offense has the same goal as Hitler’s blitz’s. What happens to political peace makers in Israel. Ask Yitzhak Rabin — (Hebrew: יִצְחָק רַבִּין ). The question falls on dead ears.
I am in total agreement wit “If the UN is aiding a terrorist organisation, I don’t want any of my Federal Tax money going to the UN” I thing we ought to close and lock the doors on the corrupt place.
As has been said; there is no substitute for victory. Any battle that does not achieve it’s objectives is guaranteed to be fought again and again.
Hi Reena, stay safe in the war zone. This war, even though truces will be called, will never be over. Because this issue of Muslims vs Isreal is old as the hills they are fighting on. It would help to have an independent Palestinian state, but even then the tensions and attacks will continue. This is a struggle of religion and blood.
The UN was helping the terrorists in Lebanon last time, allowed them to setup shop nearby, actually the news coverage and UN were giving away Israeli locations etc.
GO ISRAEL, WISH I COULD HELP!
Reena,
How can the UN hold talks, when even they will allow terrorist to shoot missles from their schools? And if the UN cannot stop Hamas, how will they stop other terrorist organization from setting up shop in Gaza after Hamas is destroyed. Even with UN troops.
David
Israel should not stop until Hamas is crushed. The more I read and watch, the more I understand how much it is necessary for this war to be won by Israel. The UN has never been in favor of any resolution which portrays Israel in a favorable light. Even when presented with undisputable evidence that Israel is justified in her actions, somehow the representatives of these Countries put the fault directly on Israel.
The UN is nothing but a conglomoration of useless Countries taking up a prime location in New York, wasting our tax dollars and contributing nothing to the well being of the World. Never take what UN says seriously.
Go Israel go! Wade into those terrorists, spill their guts, shoot them in the belly!! OH! Sorry!! I got carried away by something General Patton said.
Fox says less than 500 terrorists have been killed which is a clear indication, the Israeli defensive needs to continue for another 2 or 3 months, maybe longer. It all depends on how long it takes to kill all the terrorists.
Then we can have a cease fire….. until the terrorists rearm at which time it will start all over again.
Wouldn’t it be faster, cheaper and safer to simply nuke the sand vermin and be done with the problem?
Rusty
If Israel is telling the truth—which I suspect they are—there is actual video outside that U.N. school, showing Hamas firing rockets from right in front of the school—not even five feet away from the school. I’m sorry, I have little compassion for the Palestinians. I see ON THE NEWS very young boys out in the streets throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers—and there IS NOT a “Mother” in sight!!! I am not talking about teenagers, either—I’m seeing young boys from 8 to 11 years of age! I honestly believe the Palestinians are only “mourning” because they have lost sons who would have/could have grown-up to fight Israel “yet another day”. I am a Mother and Grandmother, yet I cannot find sympathy in my heart for ANY “Mother” who lets her children go out to play—as the Mother of two little Palestinian boys admitted, when her two little boys and their young cousin was killed. What kind of MOTHER lets her children “go out to play” while bombs are dropping all around you??? THESE ARE NOT “TYPICAL” NOR “NORMAL” MOTHERS! I do not feel guilty for having NO SYMPATHY!
Go Isreal!!! Wipe this canceer from the face of the earth!!! Take some UN losers too.
Hi Reena, charge in their and always keep your head down! This conflict is as old as the hills they are fighting on, and it seems that any truce will not last, but keep on keeping on and try to get some great footage.
I nauseates me that this reporter just has to tell us about tank preparations for battle readiness. Weee…I get to express my reporter liberties while sharing even the most seemingly insignificant details about preparations…you know, so the enemy can piece things together. I vote we send reporters like this to the Hamas side for, say, two years. If the reporter comes back alive, then we’ll talk. Go Israel!
As for the comment on the UN, it has been corrupted since the ideals that brought it to being. Your money hasn’t been sent or been paying for anything UN because the USA stopped paying any money to them, seeing as they are located on our land. The USA said until the UN reforms itself we’d have nothing to do with them. Hence the UN is failing as the League of Nation collapsed after we refused to join them. So don’t worry about your money there but rather put it into canned food as our economy is going to become worse before it gets better .
I stand behind Israel in their choice to react to gaza in a violent manner seeing as the UN’s ” treaty” really just told them to wait until after christmas to go at it again. I have a unfortunate feeling that our president elect will pull out our support of Israel. Being that it will make it harder for them to defeat their enemies. I don’t know everything but this is what i’ve come to know as fact.
Now would be a good time for Israel to reduce some of their nuclear weapons. Drop a couple on Gaza and end this whole thing.
Hi, Reena,
I hope that flak jacket is of the best material available. Please take care none of us in Tampa want to lose one of our own. Please kkep up the great work but from a safe distance.
Israel will take gaza. They are going slowly because they have to make sure their backs are secure and therefore have to eliminate fighters that have blended into the civilian population, dug tunnels, as well as clear booby traps. The media has tried to portray this as a “Dresden” but it is clear to anybody with an internet connection that this is not so. It is ironic that the media of the nations which are responsible for the Dresden bombing are the ones accusing Israel. This is a clear case of party A accusing an innocent party B of crimes that party A itself committed.
The real question is , what will Israel do with gaza after it takes it. Gaza is used by the arab countries to breed a demographic weapon. One can read online that 80%!! of gaza is supported by “aid”. In other words, welfare. Such a population could be supported in this way in the arab countries themselves. Israel should expel the gazans as Poland expelled the Germans from Silesia, pommerania and prussia.
Israel are committing warcrimes, but some of you guys are celebtrating the wholesale slaughter of children. You have no souls. You should be made live in Gaza for a while.