Qatar, Mauritania cut Israel ties

Qatar and Mauritania have suspended economic and political ties with Israel in protest against the war in Gaza, Al Jazeera has learned. The move announced on Friday followed calls by Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, and Khaled Meshaal, the exiled leader of Hamas, for all Arab nations to cut ties with Israel. Addressing leaders at an emergency Arab summit in Doha, the Qatari capital, al-Assad declared that the Arab initiative for peace with Israel was now "dead". He said Arab countries should cut "all direct and indirect" ties with Israel in protest against its offensive in Gaza. His comments echoed those of Khaled Meshaal, the exiled leader of Hamas, the Palestinian group that controls the Gaza Strip, who also called on all Arab states to cut ties with Israel. Egypt and Jordan are the only Arab countries who have signed peace treaties with Israel and have Israeli embassies. Summit demands The Qatari-hosted Arab summit concluded Friday with participants agreeing to present a Kuwaiti-hosted summit - to be held on Sunday - with a list of measures to end the conflict in Gaza. Those measures include demanding that Israel stops its offensive in the Strip, is held responsible for "crimes" committed in Gaza and immediately re-opens all border crossings. The summit also agreed that all Arab countries should form a "sea-bridge" that would enable aid supplies to reach Gaza. Speaking from Ankara, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, said Israel should be barred from the United Nations while it continues to ignore UN demands to end the fighting in Gaza. "How is such a country, which totally ignores and does not implement resolutions of the UN Security Council, allowed to enter through the gates of the UN?" he said. Erdogan’s comments came hours ahead of Friday’s official visit to Turkey by Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary general. The Turkish leader also added his voice to widespread condemnation of Israel’s bombing of a UN compound in Gaza on Thursday. "The UN building in Gaza was hit while the UN secretary general was in Israel... this is an open challenge to the world, teasing the world," he said. Diplomatic efforts to broker a ceasefire have intensified over recent days with emergency meetings being held in Qatar, Turkey, Kuwait and Egypt. Arab divisions However, Friday’s emergency summit in Doha has highlighted divisions within the Arab world, with Egypt and Saudi Arabia declining to attend, preferring instead to send delegates to a separate meeting of foreign ministers in Kuwait. The Palestinian political factions Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) are also at the Doha summit. Hashem Ahelbarra, Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Doha, said the delegates in Qatar recognise the legitimacy of the Gazan factions, whereas Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Western nations have sidelined them from ceasefire talks. "You have two camps: The so-called moderate Arab countries, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, some Gulf monarchies like the UAE, and those who are trying to say that we totally disagree with the US attempt to implement a new Middle East." Qatar summit: Key points The following demands will be taken to Sunday’s Kuwait summit for pan-Arab approval: Ahelbarra said the "moderate camp" is uncomfortable with Hamas’ ties with Iran and suspects that the Iranian leadership is using some Arab countries to further its influence in the region. He said that the latter group believes it has the duty to convey the anti-war feeling of the Arab street and condemn Israel’s actions. Talks are continuing in Cairo over an Egypt-sponsored truce, with Amos Gilad, the Israeli chief negotiator, telling Egyptian officials Israel wants an open-ended ceasefire. Israel is demanding that rocket fire from Gaza ceases and that an international force is established to prevent weapons being smuggled into Gaza. Hamas want Israeli troops to be withdrawn from the Gaza Strip immediately and for all border crossings into the territory to be permanently re-opened. While Israel says it reserves the right to use military action if under threat, its emergency security cabinet is expected to vote on Saturday in favour of a unilateral ceasefire in Gaza, according to news agency AFP. By Friday morning, 1,155 Palestinians have been killed and more than 5,200 injured since Israel launched its offensive on December 27. One third of the dead are children.

Gazans fear Israel using phosphorus

Doctors in Gaza City have told Al Jazeera that people have been admitted suffering burns consistent with the use of the controversial chemical white phosphorus. Human rights campaigners say that Israeli forces have used the munition, which can burn away human flesh to the bone, over Gaza City and Jabaliya in recent days. Al Jazeera’s Ayman Mohyeldin, reporting from the Shifa hospital in Gaza City, said: "Doctors here say they are seeing unprecedented levels of deep burns. "They cannot categorically say that white phosphorus is being used, they are saying that the munitions being dropped are unprecendented." Residents in densely-packed Jabaliya have described Israeli forces exploding shells that drop scores of burning fragments and spread suffocating smoke. "Its the first time we see this type of weapon, it must be new and its seems like its phosphorous," one resident told Al Jazeera. "Its suffocating and has a deadly poisonous smell that I am sure will cause a lot of sickness and disease on all of the civilians here," he said. Another witness said she saw "... a bright flash and then all of these sparks fell on our area ... landing all around us and in our homes. Our mattresses caught on fire". The use of the munition in densely-populated areas violates the requirement under international humanitarian law for all feasible precautions to be taken to avoid civilian injury and loss of life, Human Rights Watch said. International law permits the use of white phosphorus in order to cover troop movements and prevent enemies from using certain guided weapons. Marc Garlasco, a senior military analyst at the human rights group told Al Jazeera on Saturday that he had watched Israeli ground forces using white phosphorus. "Clearly it is [white phosphorus], we can tell by the explosions and the tendrils that go down [and] the fires that were burning," he said. "Today there were massive attacks in Jabaliya when we were there. We saw that there were numerous fires once the white phosphorus had gone in. "We went by Israeli artillery units that had white phosphorus rounds with the fuses in them." Major Avital Leibovich, an Israeli military spokeswoman, told Al Jazeera that the Israeli army was "using munitions with accordance to international law". "The policy of the IDF [Israeli Defence Force] is to not specify the types of munition, we have not done it before and we will not do it now." Mark Regev, the Israeli government spokesman, said he was unable to confirm or deny whether the military was using the chemical, but that Israel did not use munitions that were banned under international law. "I don’t have the knowledge of the detail of what ammunition we are using. I can only know for a fact that Israel uses no ammunition that is outlawed under conventions and that Nato forces would not use in a similar combat situation," he told Al Jazeera. Israel used white phosphorus during its 34-day war against Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement in 2006, while the United States used it during the controversial siege of the Iraqi city of Fallujah in 2004.

Timeline: Gaza crisis

More than 900 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its assault on December 27 [AFP] June 19: An Egyptian-brokered six-month ceasefire between Israel and Hamas comes into force. November 5: Israel closes all of its crossings with Gaza. December 14: Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal announces the six-month ceasefire with Israel will not be extended. December 19: Six-month ceasefire between Hamas and Israel officially expires. December 21: Tzipi Livni, the Israeli foreign minister, says that her primary goal if she wins Israeli elections, will be to overthrow Hamas. December 27: Israel begins assault on Gaza, codenamed "Operation Cast Lead", by launching air raids that kill more than 225 Palestinians. One Israeli is killed and six others wounded in missile attacks by Palestinian fighters. December 28: Israeli aircraft bomb the Islamic University in Gaza City and the length of the Gaza-Egypt border, taking out more than 40 tunnels used to smuggle vital goods to the strip. Hundreds of Israeli infantry and armoured forces mass on the border of the territory, and the army is given approval to call up reservists to bolster its fighting strength. December 29: Israeli air strikes hit the interior ministry in Gaza City as Israel declares a "closed military zone" around the Gaza strip. December 30: Rockets fired from Palestinian positions kill three Israelis, taking the death toll from Palestinian rocket attacks to four since the beginning of the Israeli offensive. The European Union calls for "an unconditional halt to rocket attacks by Hamas on Israel and an end to Israeli military action". December 31: Members of the UN Security Council end an emergency meeting on the crisis after failing to agree on the wording of a draft resolution. January 1: Hamas official Nizar Rayyan is killed along with 14 members of his family in an Israeli raid. January 2: Egypt begins talks with Hamas over a way to end the conflict. Around 15,000 Palestinians have fled the fighting [AFP] January 3: As Israel begins its ground offensive in Gaza, at least 11 Palestinians, including one child, are killed after Israeli forces strike a mosque in the town of Beit Lahiya. January 4: Israeli forces cut Gaza in half and ring Gaza City itself as an Israeli soldier is killed in the ongoing offensive. The European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, pledges an additional $4.2 million of emergency aid for Gaza and calls on Israel to respect international law. An Israeli air strike hits two ambulances in Gaza, killing four paramedics. January 5: Air and naval bombardments kill 45 Palestinians. Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, holds talks with Hosni Mubarak, his Egyptian counterpart, to push for a truce deal. January 6: An Israeli strike on a UN school in the northern town of Jabaliya kills 43 Palestinians and injures at least 100 who had taken refuge inside the school. Israeli strikes hit two other schools, killing two in the southern town of Khan Younis and three in the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City. January 7: 11 Palestinians are killed by air strikes and shelling in Gaza City and in the north of the Strip. Violence continues after Israel temporarily halts attacks in Gaza City for three hours to provide a "humanitarian respite." The Israeli military drops leaflets warning thousands of people in the Rafah zone on the Egyptian border to leave their houses or face air strikes. January 8: The UN’s refugee organisation in Gaza suspends all aid deliveries after an Israeli tank attacks a UN convoy, killing one Palestinian driver and injuring two other people. Israeli bulldozers cross into Gaza and destroy a number of houses. At least three rockets fired from Lebanon hit the northern Isreali town of Nahariya. The UN Security Council passes resolution, with 14 votes in favour and only the US abstaining, that "stresses the urgency of and calls for an immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza". January 9: Israeli attacks continue in Gaza soon after passing of UN resolution, with a series of explosions and gunfire heard. Six Palestinians reportedly killed in an air strike in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, raising the Palestinian death toll in Gaza to around 770, including more than 200 children, since the Israeli offensive began. January 10: Israel drops leaflets on Gaza City warning of a "new phase" in its two-week-old offensive. Eight family members are killed by an Israeli tank shell in Jabaliya, raising the Palestinian death toll in Gaza to 831 people. Khalid Meshaal, the exiled political leader of Hamas, says that Israel must halt the Gaza offensive and lift the blockade before Hamas agrees to a ceasefire deal. January 11: Israel is accused of firing white phosporous bombs on densely-populated Gaza in violation of international law. Israel reports to the UN that troops in the occupied Golan Heights came under small arms fire from Syria, but there were no injuries. Israel began sending reservists into the Gaza Strip as the military offensive continued unabated for the 16th consecutive day.