Amid reports that the Syrian military is secretly stockpiling chemical weapons, U.N. human rights investigators allegedly have testimony indicating Syrian rebels have used sarin gas. Interviews with victims and doctors have provided “strong, concrete suspicions” that rebels used the deadly nerve agent, according to a lead investigator, though the U.N. does not have “incontrovertible proof.” There’s no evidence yet that the Syrian military used sarin. The latest Geneva-based investigation is separate from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s currently stalled inquiry into the use of chemical weapons in Syria.

Reuters:

U.N. human rights investigators have gathered testimony from casualties of Syria's civil war and medical staff indicating that rebel forces have used the nerve agent sarin, one of the lead investigators said on Sunday.

The United Nations independent commission of inquiry on Syria has not yet seen evidence of government forces having used chemical weapons, which are banned under international law, said commission member Carla Del Ponte.

"Our investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals and, according to their report of last week which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated," Del Ponte said in an interview with Swiss-Italian television.

"This was use on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities," she added, speaking in Italian.

Del Ponte, a former Swiss attorney-general who also served as prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, gave no details as to when or where sarin may have been used.

Israeli warplanes have targeted Syria twice in the last three days, and now Israel is deploying two batteries of its Iron Dome rocket defense system to the north of the country. The second airstrike early Sunday, hit a military facility just north of the capital, a Western intelligence expert confirmed. Israel declined to comment. “The sky was red all night,” said one man who lives less than a mile from the facility. “We didn’t sleep a single second. The explosions started after midnight and continued throughout the night.” The facility reportedly held Iranian-supplied missiles, which Israel contends were headed for Lebanon’s Hezbollah. Israel attacked the same site three months ago. President Obama, meanwhile, defended Israel on Sunday.

Al Jazeera's Darren Jordon had quite a confrontational discussion with a spokesman for the Israeli prime minister over a series of attacks on a media building in Gaza over the past two days.

Israeli missiles hit the building twice, injuring at least six journalists in the process. The strikes were condemned by world press freedom organizations, although Israel said it was aiming for Hamas communications equipment on the roof of the buildings. On Monday, it killed a member of the Islamic Jihad group in one of the buildings.

Speaking to Darren Jordon, Israeli spokesman Mark Regev defended the strikes.

"We don't target journalists," he said. "We target Hamas."

"Rockets don't stop at a roof," Jordon replied in response. "You've got the intelligence that journalists were all over that building. It's never going to be precise enough that you can't stop injuring people below the roof."

"As far as I know, no foreign journalists were hurt whatsoever," Regev said. "We were surgical. We took out the target that we wanted to take out."

"You cannot sit there and say no journalists were injured," Jordon replied sharply. "One person had their leg blown off. That is a fact."

Indeed, one man lost his leg -- a cameraman with the local al-Quds TV -- the attack was focused on the 11th floor, where the office of al-Quds TV is located.

"Maybe we have a discussion about who is a journalist," Regev said. He called Al-Aqsa, one of the outlets targeted in the strikes, a "Hamas command and control facility," adding, "Just as in other totalitarian regimes, the media is used by the regime for command and control and also for security purposes. From our point of view, that's not a legitimate journalist."

Even if one accepted the notion that reporters for Al-Aqsa are not "legitimate" journalists — which press freedom groups like Reporters Without Borders do not — there were still several journalists from other Palestinian agencies who were injured. Many international outlets, including Reuters, Al-Arabiya and Russia Today, had their offices damaged.

"There were foreign journalists in that building," Jordon said. "There were foreign journalists near to that building."

"None of whom were hurt," Regev said.

"What are you saying, that a local Arab journalist's life is any less than an international journalist?" Jordon asked.

"Unconditionally, no. We see all journalists as legitimate people," Regev responded, after some prodding from Jordon. "We respect the free press ... if you can bring me someone who is a bona fide journalist who was injured, I want to know about it."

"You seem to be saying that Palestinians can't have a free press too," Jordon shot back. "Will Israel apologize for the injuries caused in this attack?"

"Israel does not target journalists, and I think there are very legitimate questions about Hamas using journalists as human shields," Regev said.

"Let me remind you, journalists are not armed combatants," Jordon said. "Those journalists have a job to get the story out ... you clearly are targeting the media, aren't you? You're shooting the messenger."

"Not true at all," Regev replied.

This discussion was about as productive as one of those "which came first, the chicken or the egg?" dialogues.

Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip have continued for a seventh day, despite calls for a truce, with the overall death toll reaching 111, according to medical sources.

On Monday evening, two boys, aged two and four, and their parents were killed in Jabaliya refugee camp located in a residential area. More than a dozen people were injured, mostly women and children.

And in an early Tuesday morning air raid, at least four people were injured when F-16 fighter jets hit the Islamic National Bank in Gaza City, also located in a residential area.

Diplomatic efforts are said to have intensified, yet a report Monday evening states Israel's preparations for a ground offensive are now complete:

Monday saw more carnage, more heated words and more damage on both sides. There was also more movement toward a possible intensification as Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to the United States, said Israel had finished its planning for a ground invasion of Gaza.
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Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor confirmed late Monday that "negotiations are going on" that may lead to a cease-fire, though he didn't offer any details.

An update this morning on the situation: Hamas launched a rocket into Jerusalem on Friday, the first time the current conflict with Israel has expanded outside of Gaza. Israeli media said the rocket landed outside the city and there were no causalities. A ceasefire Friday between Israel and Hamas collapsed after just three hours when Palestinians continued launching rockets over the border, and Israel resumed airstrikes in retaliation. The ceasefire had been planned for Egyptian Prime Minister Hesham Qandil’s visit to Gaza. The Israeli military also announced Friday morning that it was calling up 16,000 reservists for a potential ground operation. More on this from the Washington Post.
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Israel is continuing to pound the Gaza Strip with air strikes amidst fears that Israel could soon launch a ground invasion into Gaza. Israeli troops, tanks and armored personnel carriers are now massing near the Palestinian territory. Earlier today, 85 missiles exploded within 45 minutes in Gaza City, sending black pillars of smoke. At least 21 Palestinians have died in the most recent round of violence, while three Israelis died on Thursday. Israel said it launched 150 air strikes overnight, while Palestinians fired a dozen rockets into Israel. Israel has started to draft 30,000 reserve troops in a sign the assault may soon widen. Among the casualties of Israeli violence was the 11-month-old son of a BBC Arabic journalist, Jihad Misharawi. Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Kandil traveled to Gaza today to condemn the Israeli attack. For more, Democracy Now! gets a report from Rafah by Palestinian journalist Mohammed Omer, who says, "One thing that we ought to talk about here is the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip. This is a situation of targeting a population of civilians, exactly like Israel is shooting in a fishbowl. And there is no shelter, and there is nowhere to run for the general population. Gaza is living in a very dire situation." Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! also speaks with Gershon Baskin, the founder of the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information, who was the initiator of the secret talks between Israel and Hamas for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

A rush transcript follows below the fold.

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