Graffiti in one Zeitoun home showing a figure standing next to an Israeli flag going to the bathroom on a Palestinian flag.

It has been nearly two weeks since Israel ended major military operations in Gaza and, only now, is a picture of what happened beginning to really emerge.

After being barred by Israel and Egypt from freely entering Gaza during the three-week military operation, reporters from around the world flooded Gaza in the past two weeks to begin putting the pieces together.

One of the most well-documented incidents took place in Zeitoun, a rural patch of land south of Gaza City where 29 members of one family were killed, Red Cross ambulances were repeatedly denied access and young children were found trapped in homes with the corpses of their parents.

NPR's Eric Westervelt reported in a eight-minute piece on Zeitoun that residents made 140 emergency calls for help during the first two days of the Israeli ground offensive. But Israeli soldiers prevented Red Cross medics from reaching the survivors until the fourth day of the operation.

Ashraf Khalil at the Los Angeles Times wrote a vivid story about one family whose unarmed father was killed when soldiers burst into the home. The survivors got an OK to walk to safety, but were taunted by Israeli soldiers as they left their homes and a one-year-old was shot as the relatives walked down the road.

Sheera Frenkel at The Times of London tracked down an Israeli soldier stationed in Zeitoun who said they were told: "Fire on anything that moves in Zeitoun."

The soldier said the instructions were clear: "Shoot first and ask questions later." 

Tim Butcher at The Daily Telegraph was among the first reporters to visit Zeitoun and documented some of the spiteful graffiti left by the Israeli soldiers: "Arabs need 2 die." "1 down, 999,999 to go." "Arabs are pieces of s--t."

What happened in Zeitoun does not appear to have been an aberration.

Tim Butcher was among the many to write about the searing impact of Israeli use of white phosphorus in civilian areas.  

Residents in Ezbt Abed Rabbo north of Gaza City reported that an Israeli soldier opened fire on a family waving white flags, killing two young girls. The incident is one of five involving white flags being investigated by human rights workers.

Tim McGirk at Time Magazine examined the economic impact of the Israeli offensive that hit Gaza's ice cream factory.

My McClatchy colleague, Shashank Bengali, wrote about the Israeli bombing of Gaza's elite American International School.

"The Israelis want to keep us poor and ignorant," said Amar Hamad, head of the Palestinian business association.

As might be expected, the reports coming out of Gaza have generated an intense reaction in Israel.

"Israel takes every report of war crimes seriously, provided it comes from a credible source," Israel's Foreign Ministry said in a prepared statement about the issue. "However, no official body or organization has presented any evidence of war crimes allegedly committed by Israel. All accusations have been based on rumor, half-truths, anonymous reports from unconfirmed sources, and manipulations of the truth."

But, faced with the still-growing number of concerning cases, the Obama administration is urging Israel to take a serious look at the allegations.

"We expect Israel to meet its international obligations to investigate," Susan Rice, the new US ambassador to the UN, said in her first speech to the UN Security Council.  

Orly Halpern at The Globe and Mail looked at the charged Israeli response to the stories coming out of Gaza.

"The worse it gets, the harder you have to defend it," Larry Derfner, a columnist for The Jerusalem Post told The Globe and Mail. "There's too much to admit, too much guilt to take on."