Yasser Abu Shabab, a Bedouin man in his 30s, holds sway in eastern Rafah, an area close to a key border crossing between Israel and Gaza.

A week ago, the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert wrote an opinion piece for the liberal daily newspaper Haaretz. He described how he’d defended Israel’s military campaign in Gaza to audiences around the world. But now, he said, his opinion had changed. "Yes", he wrote, "Israel is committing war crimes".

JERUSALEM/CAIRO (Reuters) -Sixteen Palestinians were killed by the Israeli military in Gaza on Friday, according to local health authorities, as a U.S.- and Israeli-backed group said it had handed out aid in the enclave after earlier saying that its distribution sites were closed.