Former British Foreign Secretary David Miliband observes the stunted children, overcrowded schools, power cuts and wrecked buildings in Gaza, and deplores the irrationality of the inertia of all political agencies

Outside Israel and its circle of defenders, the Palmer report into the killing of nine Turks on the Mavi Marmara has been greeted by universal disbelief and criticism. Jeremy Salt of Bilkent University, Ankara, gives a particularly lucid account of the report’s blind spots and asssumptions

No political authority in Israel or Gaza has held to account any agent of the war crimes detailed in the Goldstone report. Now three international human rights NGOs have joined with three Palestinian rights NGOs to call on the UN Security Council to refer the crimes committed by both sides to the International Criminal Court

One of a slew of Wikileaks about Israel reveals that not only does the IDF use drones to kill militants – and many civilian bystanders – but it has kept the US Ambassador to Israel well-informed of their tactics

Treated as outlaws under Mubarak, the Bedouin of the Sinai have acted as entrepreneurial smugglers for the Gazans, shifting anything from a tiger to fuel – but not suicide bombers. With Al Qaeda trying to recruit them, reports Mohamed Fadel Fahmy, only Egypt can bring them in from the wilderness.

Although there is no firm evidence that the rocket attacks on Israel on 18th August came from Gaza, the IOF has responded with deadly airstrikes, continuing after the cease-fire. Personal (Al Jazeera vox pop 1, Eva Bartlett 2, ) and Gazan legal centre (PCHR, 3, Al Mezan Center, 4) accounts testify to the damage

The dependence of Israel on Mubarak’s control is evident as Netanyahu’s government looks for ways to master the unruly peoples of Sinai and Gaza and the military regime in Egypt has, for the first time, to take into account popular Arab feeling. Adam Shatz in his LRB blog, first, and then Issandr El Amrani of The Arabist assess the change of power relationships

Uncertainty seems to mark the stance of Netanyahu’s government towards the attacks of 18 August despite loud words and air strikes on Gaza. With weak Palestinian leadership and fanatics in the Knesset, the men of violence will dominate, argues Richard Lightbown, unless protesting Israeli civilians press the case for change

Since the Egyptian revolution, there has been pressure to increase the price of the supply of gas to Israel, or to stop it altogether. Dina Ezzat looks at why the governments of the two countries are intent on maintaining the supply amidst the border conflicts

If Israel’s control of Gaza were about preventing ‘terror’, why block the work of fishermen and farmers and prevent the export of goods from Gaza asks Ben White? Only blocking Israel’s policies of colonialism and apartheid will free Palestinians to be economically and politically productive

Ramzy Baroud discovers that in the waste of shame where many of Somalia’s neighbours are stranded, the impoverished people of Gaza send gifts and regards to the victims of famine in East Africa

To accompany the review of Occupation of the Territories: Israeli Soldier Testimonies 2000-2010 (‘Who’s the boss here?, this page) we post an acccount of the weekly sit-ins in Gaza by prisoners’ families. The Israeli Supreme Court has ruled “family visits are not a basic humanitarian need for Gaza residents”.

From In Gaza’s regular reports of daily life: another night another Israeli air-raid, said to be a strategic strike against terrror, more truthfully an act of strategic terror against Palestinians says the writer

Gaza has one great natural asset – about 40 kilometres (25 miles) of coast with a fishing limit stretching 20 nautical miles out to sea. Until Israe’s blockade and constant gun-fire cut that limit to 3 miles depriving Gazans of a once-plentiful source of fresh protein, skills and income

Michael Oren cheers removal of Mavi Marmara from flotilla as too large to stop ‘with technical means’, denies any lack of medicines or food in Gaza, relies on San Remo defence and sees Israel as besieged by belligerent Muslims and ‘de-legitimisers’

WHO attributes Gaza’s acute shortage of medical products to the fear of suppliers they will not be paid because Israel has withheld tax transfers to the PA after the Hamas/Fatah deal

As the Stay Human Freedom Flotilla prepares to sail to Gaza, Richard Silverstein points out that as the San Remo treaty applies only to ‘times of war’, it provides no defence for the Israeli navy if it attacks the flotilla A second post below – check the video – says that the Israeli navy has had plenty of practice attacking Gazan fishing boats

Gisha, the Israeli centre for freedom of movement, publishes ten reasons why the opening of the Rafah crossing, though valued, does not afford Palestinians the right of free movement or access to material necessities

Hospitals in Gaza are running out of medical stock, creating a ‘near catastrophe’ in care. Human rights groups urged to act, the Israeli blockade and the continuing stand-off between Hamas and Fatah are blamed

Ramzy Baroud, editor of PalestineChronicle.com, is one of those allowed to cross into his Gaza home under the new Egyptian rule