Abbas cuts short Europe trip over Gaza violence

Israel's massive operation in Gaza has prompted Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to cut short a European trip to seek support for upgraded UN status, an official said Thursday. "President Abbas decided to cut short his visit to Europe. He will return today to follow the Israeli escalation against Gaza and will do his best to halt it," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP. He said Abbas had made contact with both UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the US administration, as well as with European heads of state and Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi to urge their best efforts "to immediately stop the Israeli escalation." The Palestinian leader would return to Ramallah later on Thursday and would attend an emergency Arab League summit on the Gaza violence in Cairo on Saturday, he said. Abbas late Wednesday demanded an immediate halt to a series of Israeli air strikes on Gaza which began with the targeted killing of Hamas military commander Ahmed Jaabari in a strike on a car in Gaza City. So far, 11 Gazans have been killed and more than 115 wounded in more than 100 Israeli air strikes, as militants have fired more than 180 rockets at Israel, killing three. "Abbas warned of the seriousness of the Israeli escalation and demanded an immediate end to the aggression," a statement by the official WAFA Palestinian news agency said. Abbas is planning to submit a request to the UN General Assembly on November 29 seeking to upgrade the Palestinians' status from that of an observer entity to an observer state in a move which is fiercely opposed by Israel and Washington. On the other side, as Israeli warplanes pound Gaza, the military has launched an unprecedented communications strategy on social networks by posting real time information about its assault on the Palestinian territory. With live-tweets, videos on YouTube, updates on Facebook and graphics on blogging platform Tumblr, the tech-savvy Israel Defence Forces (IDF) have blanketed social networks with their take on the deadly assault. The violence began on Wednesday afternoon with Israel's targeted killing of a top Hamas military commander, which kicked off a violent confrontation that has so far claimed the lives of 14 Gazans. Since then, the army's Twitter account @IDFSpokesperson -- which also exists in French (@Tsahal_IDF) and Spanish (@FDIonline) -- has pushed out multiple updates on the operation using the hashtags #IsraelUnderFire or #PillarOfDefense. "The IDF has begun a widespread campaign on terror sites & operatives in the #Gaza Strip, chief among them #Hamas & Islamic Jihad targets," it tweeted on Wednesday, before announcing it had targeted Hamas commander Ahmed Jaabari. Later, the IDF tweeted a picture of Jaabari on a red background with the word "Eliminated" splashed across it, alongside a description of several crimes of which Israel accused him. It has also used Twitter to send a warning to Hamas. "We recommend that no Hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their faces above ground in the days ahead," read one of IDF's posts, which has been retweeted nearly 4,000 times. The tweet drew a near immediate response from @AlqassamBrigade, the Twitter account of the armed wing of Hamas, which accused Israel of having "opened hell gates on yourselves." Hamas is also using this Twitter account to push out news of its activities and post disturbing photos of alleged child victims. The IDF also linked to a video of the air strike which killed Jaabari. And on YouTube, it has put up videos seeking to explain "what gives Israel the right to defend itself" and "how does the IDF minimise harm to Palestinian civilians."