Truth will out even in Gaza. . .

. . .even when the controlling forces ban journalists and cameramen in the hope that pictures and stories will not illustrate their actions to the rest of the world.

The BBC broadcast two interviews with eyewitnesses, children (one 13) who are being treated for their injuries after being rescued from the house Israeli soldiers tricked over a hundred people into believing would be a place of safety, and then, in total breach of the Geneva Conventions, shelled it.

They tell their stories simply, with obvious honesty and directness, and they are compelling and distressing to anyone who believes they have the right to call themselves humane and civilised.

What makes it a war crime is not just that deceit, not just deliberately and consciously targeting civilians, men, women and children, but that for four days they refused to allow medical help to reach them.

An interview with an Israeli spokesman (fortunately recorded by the BBC before the interviews with the two surviving children, or no doubt the story would have changed) produced what for years so many of us have come to expect even when we do not know the real story: half-truths, lies, and propaganda.

Israeli troops were not operating in the area; Israel tries hard to avoid civilian casualties; this was an area where the population is under the thumb of Hamas and therefore could be persuaded to say anything; it is Hamas propaganda. In any case the Israeli army is investigating.

And that last phrase usually seems to mean 'investigating as to how this crime can be covered up, made to appear the fault of the victims, or, as an absolute last resort, which Israeli soldier is most expendable and can be charged later with mere 'neglect of duty' or something minor.

I do not for a moment think that many American citizens, or Israeli ones, though there will be some who dare to speak out, will not swallow the initial Israeli story. There are enough friends of Israel to swamp a great deal of the American media with it, and for many, it will no doubt believed more true with time.

But the rest of the world, I think, is becoming thoroughly sickened by this kind of thing. Though I have avoided writing it, comparisons between the behaviour of the SS in Jewish ghettoes in World War II and some Israeli behaviour in Gaza now are inescapable.

And I trust it will be a source of shame for generations of Israelis to come that they allowed to happen, have called for, and have supported, some of the very abuses that they have for sixty years held another nation, now much changed, to account for. And to which they claim they owe in part the legitimacy of their state.

I think you will find the interviews here on BBC World Service Newshour for the rest of the day.