News in Briefs

1. Checkout this photo from AP on Jerusalem Post's website:

The caption:

Palestinian Fatah-loyalist security forces fire towards Hamas gunmen. [File]

Observations:

- what the @$#% is that civilian wandering past gunmen in the middle of a firefight? No wonder there are so many non-combatant deaths in Gaza.

- where is the gunmen on the left aiming? Unless the target is up on the first floor, or they have smart bullets, it's going to be a long, long firefight.

- I wouldn't want to be in the front row (seen on the right of the picture). There is equal danger of being shot from behind by one's fellow fighters than in the front by the enemy.

2. We welcome Dry Bones Blog to the blogroll on the right-hand side of this blog. Dry Bones has been illustrating humorous cartoons for many years, including those that appear on the Jerusalem Post website. He has a daily blog. Check it out.

3. The ABC Online Editors must either be holidays or turned their back on the Middle East. Overnight, more Palestinians have been killed in factional fighting, as Khaled Abu Toameh reports:

Eight more Palestinians were killed Thursday in armed confrontations between Hamas and Fatah members in the Gaza Strip, bringing the death toll to 13 over the past 48 hours. At least 16 Palestinians were wounded in Thursday's fighting.

Meanwhile, IDF operations in Ramallah, Bethlehem and northern Gaza strip resulted in the apprehension of one terror suspect, the failed attempt to arrest another, and four Palestinian deaths in the resultant gunfights, presumably as Palestinians defended the terror suspects. Jerusalem Post has a good summary here.

So what news do we get at the ABC?

Nothing.

(Incidentally, "Briefs" in the title was not a typo. I'm taking blogging one stage further than Pajamas Media. No pictures though.)