plunged into darkness as israel pounds gaza again the body counts rising with more deaths and injuries among children. but a truce with names elusive for the palestinians accusing israel of stalling the ceasefire. and as the west pledges to work for call between the warring sides we'll look at why washington show sympathy for this is the billions being killed in some parts of the middle east not so much in others.

this is our day coming to live from moscow i'm marina joshie israel's bombardment of gaza has intensified overnight despite talk of a pending cease fire the number of palestinians killed in the weeklong offensive now exceeds one hundred forty was more than a thousand people want it just take a look at how the tragedy in gaza has unfolded in recent days but be aware that these images are upsetting. the border no no no no no no no this is the law that it will.

throw. now israeli bombs hitting in residential districts and killing civilians are a daily reality in gaza what's more media compounds and reporters are also increasingly becoming a target for israeli forces we now talk to harry fear who is in gaza for us why are we here or that along with the civilian casualties there are those trying to report the conflict to a wider world are also being killed and the strikes how did that happen and were they deliberately targeted. well in some cases civilian journalists have been deliberately targeted yesterday israel killed three media workers shorthand journalists two of them a cameraman for the t.v. channel another for the educational television channel and israel has admitted that it did deliberately target these civilians according to israel these stations that

these media workers work for are not legitimate journalistic enterprises and therefore susceptible to being targeted any time. now tell us more about the strikes that happened overnight how damaging were they. will israel has intensified the pounding of gaza overnight and. particularly the targeting of governmental and police buildings and the biggest police but it biggest police station was totally leveled and causing structural damage to nearby buildings some of the biggest governmental structures in gaza city were targeted including the biggest civil service building here in gaza so israel is not winding down its assault on gaza. in the southern area of the gaza strip was targeted heavily overnight particularly the smuggling tunnels which gazans called the survival smuggling tunnels were almost totally destroyed last night continually being pounded as i speak to you now

with helicopters an f. sixteen as they were struck of a sixteen times last night. or hairy for several days and now we've been hearing that a cease fire is imminent so what's the feeling in gaza about these promises. gazans don't expect to see a cease fire today they hope to see a cease fire yesterday but i don't expect to see it anytime soon they remember all too well the operation cast lead and what's happened in the last twenty four hours resembles increasingly operation the reports of white phosphorus destroying off the bridge that connects middle north gaza with the south of gaza the isolation of the south of gaza and. recently resembling an escalation akin to that of operation cost of winter two thousand and nine the same time the gazans don't want to compromise on the conditions the representatives in the various wings have put on a cease fire they will not leave their homes in many cases they will not evacuate

and heed israeli warnings to evacuate their homes from the east and move to gaza city many of them are rejecting that. they want to stay in their homes to defend what they call the righteous cause. all right harris thanks very much indeed for bringing us the very latest from the ground there was a journalist and documentary filmmaker following all the developments on the situation inside the gaza strip. now despite several optimistic announcements regarding a ceasefire made on tuesday evening a truce still looks elusive our disposal years following diplomatic developments and joins us now live from tel aviv hold you paul there how have the prospects for a cease fire managed to slip away. well as you correctly say the chances for a cease fire are increasingly elusive it's a far cry today wednesday what we witnessed from late tuesday when we were hearing that a cease fire was imminent at that stage a key hamas spokesperson said that the announcement would be made but now what

we're hearing from hamas is that israel is to blame for delaying the whole process and must essential he says that israel has not yet responded to proposals put forward on the table television however for its side says that the draft agreement is too much tilted towards the guards and it also says it wants to see a twenty four hour lull in fighting that would give it some kind of indication as to the sincerity of the gazans to actually enforce such a cease fire now it's strange because you have all these discussions around a cease fire but on the ground you have a very different situation the israelis have continued with their strikes northern gaza in particular has been under intensive shelling from israeli tanks along the israel gaza border and also wednesday morning there have been barrages of rockets landing inside southern israel now essentially what hamas is asking for is for the blockade that israel has imposed over gaza for several years now to be lifted it also wants to see the borders opened the israelis for this side want to say should

of hostilities they also want the right to be able to track down and kill any kind of people that they have information on who are about to carry out militant activities so at this stage it is still possible that a ground operation could be called on we in fact are hearing from the israeli foreign minister avigdor lieberman he has said and i'm quote quoting that calls from the international community to refrain from a ground operation only strengthened her masse. and extend the conflict so at this stage the question of peace is just as a new suit as ever. our poll let's now take a look at the international community and. the violence and the. two of for the so is there any progress being made there at all. well there's a lot of questions being asked particularly over the united nations which has been quiet for the better part of the last week in fact it hasn't issued any kind of statements since this conflict started and this is allegedly because it did not want to interfere with efforts by both the arab league and cairo to try and hash

out some kind of cease fire if there is no ceasefire that is agreed to by the software and wednesday we're being told that the u.n. security council will hold an open debate and that this debate will address the whole issue of what to do and what is happening here on the ground we are also now hearing information that the united states did block a security council call that was for an immediate cease fire over israeli hostilities and i'm quoting again here this was because it failed to address according to the u.s. the root cause of the escalation now the u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton is in the region she's already met with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and she's on her way to cairo where she'll meet with the egyptian president as well as the arab league foreign ministers but she certainly hasn't india herself to the gazans because already she has stated quite clearly that israel has the support of the united states in fact the word she used was that they give them rock solid support so of course this is gone down with the israeli public but it's been received very differently from those living in gaza.

or of paul thanks very much for bringing us that was policy live from tel aviv. well washington's almost unflinching support for israel is raising doubts that the mediating mission it's taken upon itself will bring unbiased results plus america's track record in selecting a word of push for peace and protect civilians isn't helping as she's going if she can now explains the crisis in the middle east probably like no other crisis reveals the double speak of u.s. foreign policy the us basically gave a green light to any of their actions with regards to palestinians and israel has been taking advantage of that quite extensively because as president obama explained there is no country on earth would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders makes complete sense nobody should but one

may ask what about all those countries that the us has bombed iraq afghanistan pakistan yemen and others or is it that when you refer to civilian deaths as collateral damage somehow killing civilians sounds more justified when it comes to that doesn't situation you usually hear u.s. officials speak along these lines of course in a conflict like this the civilian casualties are inevitable but the u.s. is not always like that when the government was killing civilians the u.s. stood to sympathize with the innocents there in most graphic terms but it appears in washington sympathy for suffering tenby selected this is hillary clinton on syria the shooting death of a one year old recently by the syrian regime's tanks and troops. is a very stark example of what is going on. one may ask what about those horrible shots of children dying in gaza is that somehow a less stark example of what's going on it seems america's world police mindset and

standing up for the weak thing doesn't apply to palestinians instead we hear the same mantra from u.s. officials that israel has the right to defend itself which effectively implies that in the eyes of washington the killing of civilians in gaza is justified the u.s. has most recently blocked the un security council statement calling for a cease fire in the israeli gaza conflict deeming the statement unbalanced against israel just as the us has blocked all other palestinian related un resolutions in the past whether it was on israel continuing to build settlements on occupied territories or other initiatives put forward to ease the years long suppression of the people there by blocking all efforts of the international community to mediate a solution in washington contributes to the status quo and the status quo here is that the root causes of the crisis have not been addressed and is the root causes remain any ceasefire looks temporary there was

a major israeli assault on gaza four years ago more than a thousand people did not solve the problem so one may argue the status quo almost guarantees that the cycle of violence will continue. violence on the ground and diplomatic wrangles are not the only battlefields in the middle east they're also in line and they're proving decisive next year she asking now explains. the latest military conflict in the gaza strip may go down in history as the first war ever declared on twitter the official account of the israeli defense force announced the start of the pillar of defense operation and one of those literally told the enemy to run and hide but later hamas had their say using similar war rhetoric this exchange has been retreated thousands of times since and numbers do matter on twitter through hits likes replies and retreats and more people than ever before turn to social media and the question is who is winning this online warfare and

numbers speak for themselves according to the hashtags dot org website the gods are under attack crash tag is ten times more popular than israel under fire pray for gaza is twenty times more popular than pray for israel and gaza hash tag is almost twice as popular as israel in a nutshell this is the battle between a heavily funded state propaganda machine and citizen journalism from the outside looking israel's content is better produced more powerful shiny and glossy take these banners for instance which were posted on idea of official facebook page how mars has also been manning the information war trenches some say clumsily as these tweets may suggest but the effect of social media boom on young palestinian activists in changing public perception of the palestinian israeli conflict has been huge youngers the residents regularly rush to hospitals and take and upload photos and videos of tragedy and inhumanity and some of the pictures have become symbolic of israel's disproportionate use of force the graphic and vocal message in

those tweets is perhaps the reason why palestinian citizen journalism is proving more effective and why israeli social networkers simply cannot compete with the content coming out of gaza whether this first war started on twitter can become the first war lost on twitter is a question but one conclusion seems evident enough israel has not grasped the destructive power of social media as tightly as it's holding the people of gaza in its grip. on air and online we have the latest from the middle east at r.t. dot com now more reaction quoting an israeli defense ministry spokesman who says hamas is solely to blame for civilian deaths on both sides. the graphic footage in gaza of dead children to maintain their deaths at the hands of israel and israeli airstrikes on the fold of hamas. i can tell you genuinely genuine breaks my heart you think that we want to see dead children on

any side who are in this predicament that however with the most strategically surgical precision pinpoint strikes when they're hiding beneath this of indian population there will be collateral damage. also i have for you this hour avoiding past mistakes syria's opposition coalition is one step away from full recognition by the u.s. and the e.u. as they wait and see the blog deserves complete backing. as case families struggle to heat their homes their spawn comfort from power giants still dreaming profits from soaring energy bills all that and more after a short break. closures

that so much have been told there's a huge decision on the market the carnage used in gaza and israel claims you are going to the gazans using self defense at the same time denying the palestinians. mission of free accreditation free zones for charges free. range month free risk free studio time free. download free blogs just plug in video for your media projects and a free media dog r.t. dot com. we can speak your language.

music programs and documentaries in spanish matters to you breaking news a little tonnage of angles kid stories. here. and then try to alter the spanish find out more visit. all tito it's called. me is eve eve. it's. six.

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what about if you're watching r t britain has joined france in recognizing the new syrian opposition unity group as the sole objective of voice of the syrian people the u.k. has also pledged more practical support for the rebels but the wider e.u. blog and the us stopped short of giving full endorsements to the coalition of washington saying the body must first prove its worth after the assessor was done by feuding and applications of domination peace activists john rees questions how much support the foreign based opposition and its western backers have within syria . so i think many of the people on the ground local igniting committees have never liked the business of western intervention they've made a point in their statements in their press releases and the things that they've

said that they don't like that it's they don't think they're genuine revolution can come by the by the western assistance and certainly by its military and so i think they're very very many people graduate aren't represented here but the danger is. in iraq and in other places unrepresentative groups once they get the support of the west can come to dominate larger numbers of people on the ground. amman has set its eyes on u.s. handheld missile launchers worth nearly one hundred billion dollars to power up its army base and ditz from antiwar dot com says the gulf monarchies shopping for political perks from its supplier i can't find a single incident of the omani military ever having fought a tank in its entire history they simply don't need that many us is of course exporting sixty six billion dollars annually in weapons a lot of it going to this region to countries that simply don't need it and seemingly buy it only for the the diplomatic benefits that it confers with the

administration it just destabilize the entire region. let's take a look at some other stories from around the world your council has you know honestly decided to sanction armed rebels in the democratic republic of congo whose fires have easily captured the resource rich eastern city of gone beyond twenty three groups formed after accusing congo flouting the peace agreed after a decade of conflict was neighboring rwanda which saw up to five million people die . but the un statement failed to mention randa or uganda which congo claim supported the rebels. india has executed the lone surviving gunmen from two thousand and eight terror attack on mumbai a small kosov a pakistani citizen was one of ten gunmen who set siege to india's financial capital four years ago killing one hundred sixty six people because saab was on a wednesday morning after india's president rejected his plea for mercy.

argentina's capital and several other cities in the country are now in the grip of union strikes hundreds of flights have been canceled and other ground lines have been closed the unions are voicing their anger over the state of the country's economy rising crime and corruption the rally is the second in two weeks against president cristina fernandez de kirchner is government. in the u.k. millions are said to be left in the cold this winter as cash strapped families struggle to pay gas and electricity bills as she is laura smith reports there is little comfort from the energy giants where the race for profit and hold sway. it's a bitter winter's day in london and inside this plot it's not much warmer single mother of four julie has only one thing on her mind as the cold bites how is she going to pay her ever rising energy bill i decided to take

a few libel from the ceiling and i only use one in my room is only sitting in my kitchen and my you just one like trying to cut down. off the bill next time but in regard to bill. we spoke to julie last winter when she was already struggling and we've come back to see how she'll face this year's even bigger challenge five of the six big energy companies have announced price rises of around ten percent according to use which whose business it is to help people reduce their bills it will drive more into an increasingly common form of poverty poverty is where you spend more than ten percent of your net income on your energy bills and we've seen these recent price increases pushed three hundred fourteen founts and people into fuel poverty that's on top of an estimated seven million people who

already one survey ahead of this winter found energy prices were the biggest concern for consumers ninety percent said the cost of energy was their main household worry ahead of rising costs for food petrol and mortgage payments julie shows me her energy bills carefully conserve to chart the inexorable rise since she moved in in two thousand and seven she's afraid that this winter her children's health will suffer again in a way that when accomplice or his extra blanket his socks and the children just put it on the moon we will call two thousand and ten and two thousand and eleven there were sick. because trying to be mean not the. well julie's children are getting sick the energy companies are profiting british gas whose prices are up six percent is on track to make one point four billion pounds in profits this year and e.t.f.

with the highest price rise of ten point eight percent announced profits of one point six billion in february where are you going to find the extra ten percent that's going to go when you're both of them but what i don't know if you're a smith r.t. london and make hands made is also a major headache for an increasing number of people in greece but there is at least the rise of what i propose kind of twenty two thousand more jobs we're down to a mistake by the i.m.f. to argue dot com for the whole story. and some of the heat from the conflict in gaza comes to our t's crossed off studio only minutes away. it's perched atop a jar and the view from the kremlin stretches as far as the eye can see. for a city to all of siberia for centuries. it lost its economic importance even before

it was bypassed by the chance siberian railway but the a spiritual center. things like these are a yearly occurrence thousands of worshippers did themselves in blessid water to commemorate the baptism of jesus. when you will of god the it doesn't matter if it's minus thirty it's a siberian tradition i do it myself every year for everyone to overcome their worst fears it is desirable to take the plunge. but that's picture postcard churches the story of a city built by opportunist explorers political exiles and crafty fur traders.

in the fifteen eighties the russians had only just conquered siberia taking it from the muslims. surrounded by enemies to be their stronghold constructed on top of the city but soon enough it became an economic hub siberian fire was the oil of its time bringing in a third of the state revenue but the location had of the uses for the russians. to moscow's one of the most popular places to send political dissent is not any people were exiled that once a giant ballot that was used to incite riots was supposed to set a three hundred ten. the russian aristocracy. a revolt against the eight hundred twenty five known as the decembrists. they created a replica high society adopting the latest fashions as soon as they came out or at least once they made it from paris to siberia but the city also served up some

bitter irony for the russian royal family after the bolshevik revolution. this is the office was nicholas the second spend most of the last year of his life his whole family had been exiled here they were the fairly comfortable existence this was a big house but they weren't allowed to see visitors or go outside themselves whilst leaving this ordinary normal countryside lifestyle they even had thoughts of escape but within the year the czar and his family would be dead. never again its political significance but the streets will always echo with a glorious past and will likely provide their livelihood first inhabitants in the future.

following welcome to cross talk i'm peter all of the carnage continues in gaza israel claims its bombardment of the gazans is in self-defense at the same time denying the palestinians in the besieged strip the same right what can israel possibly achieve in this operation called pillar of cloud beyond perpetuating still another cycle of violence. to cross-talk the gaza crisis i'm joined by harry fear in gaza he is a documentary filmmaker and activist in amman we have rabbani he is coeditor of jagger leah and in pittsburgh we cross to greg roman he used to director of the pittsburgh jewish.