White Smoke

The UN is accusing Israel of illegal use of phosphorous munitions, saying such bombs hit their facility today. In the facility were thousands of tons of food and medicine aid.

Human Rights Watch says it has witnessed "dozens and dozens" of such bombs used in heavily civilian-populated areas.

The Israeli army says it uses all weapons legally.

The BBC put it guardedly, saying "there is no way independently to explain the contradiction between both sides' reports, as Israel has prevented international journalists from entering Gaza since its offensive began."

The Beat Goes On

Showing the impotency of the institution, the U.N.'s declared cease fire was ignored by both sides of the conflict in Gaza today.  Israel continued on with a fresh wave of aerial bombardments and Hamas continued firing rockets into southern Israel.  

Questions of war crimes on Israel's part were raised in the U.N. on account of an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) reporting that claims IDF forces ignored the emergency medical needs for civilians required by international law.  In perhaps the only good news to come from the discourse, the U.N. has demanded human rights monitors be deployed to the area to monitor the situation.  

Israel continued it's brief window of calm to let in aid this morning, during which time Hamas fired an undetermined number of rockets into Israel, who returned fire.  

14 of the 15 U.N. security members signed on to the cease fire demands, with one abstaining.  You guessed it -- the United States.