Civilians who die on Israel side are blamed on Palestinians. Civilians who die on Palestinian side are blamed on Israelis. There is no justification. There is a reason why there are norms and laws that regulate wars. Anyone who think otherwise is viewing a life from one side as not worth much. That is exactly how Nazies and others used to think. Should we not learn from history?
Not really buddy, it does not work like that. Civilians who died during WWII - russians, americans, brits, germans... - they were blamed on Germany, and rightly so. Civilians dying during this conflict are blamed on the side that started it, on the side that had repeatedly violated the truce, the side that refused to renew the truce, the side that was firing rockets at innocent civilians while the opposite side was sending one high level official after another (Livni and co) to Egypt desperately trying to renew the truce and avoid bloodshed. Duh!!! Exactly. And when the government of Gaza (Hamas) fires rockets into Israel - these are acts of war (just as they would be if the government of Spain fired rockets into Portugal) and Israel has every right to retaliate and attack Hamas militants and installations (even if it causes civilian casualties).
Palestinians are under occupation, and it is right for occupied people to resist an occupation. Just like any country has a right of defense. (there is no right of offense). Your argument is actually not in Israel advantage. If you compare to Germany, Germany was an occupying force, and so is Israel. Therefore, following your logic, one would conlcude that Israel is responsible both for Israel and Palestinian civilian deaths. I have heard a Palestinian make an argument using your logic, and you just reinforced his logic.
Yawn. Gaza had not been under occupation for more than 3.5 years (see my discussion with "self-destructive" above). Gaza was not under occupation when they elected Hamas and fired thousands of rockets. People like you could not care less about "innocent civilians" anyway, you're motivated by your hatred of Israel, not concerns over the well-being of the Palestinian people. You're not fooling anyone. The only thing you and your ilk are achieving is extending their sufferings.
Yeah, yeah, every life is sacred.... Israel calls these morons up on the phone before they blow up the houses... and they choose to stay and die. If their lives are not sacred to them what do we care? Those Palestinian celebrations you see sometimes, they are firing AK's into the air, the bullets are falling in their own territory, on their own people!! Sacred my ass... Maybe you want to go around being careful to not step on bugs or whatever but personally, I say go Israel!! If peace was possible in that region, I am all for it but it's just not possible so the next best thing to do is pruning of the terrorist organizations and outright war against them occasionally to keep them suppressed to the extent necessary...
I haven't spoken of settlers in Gaza, I spoke of settlers in the West Bank: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_settlement Ehud Barak said it himself, they have been planning the invasion of Gaza for six months. What are they doing now? Invading Gaza. What did they do before the invasion? Isolated the area from the rest of the world. I'm sorry you keep getting it wrong all the time, but that is the very definition of siege. Yes, I do know that. You're missing one thing though, the Israeli government tried with all it's power to isolate Hamas long before rockets where fired. Right after the election, Hamas leaders were about to become more moderate, in order to get accepted by the international community, much like the PLO back in the 70s. Israel demanded that Hamas lay down all weapons, recognize Israels right to exist and basically take Israeli cock up their ass before even talking to them. Hamas offered a deal in which Israel and Hamas would have had a 10 year long truce in exchange for Israel ending the occupation of Palestinian territories; more than enough time to get into negotiations and eventually lay down a deal in which both parties recognize each others right to exist. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamas#The_possibility_of_a_ceasefire_with_Israel But Israel didn't want that, somehow they wanted Hamas to stay extreme, so they applied their infamous pressure on the US and EU in order to make them all isolate Hamas. Norway was the only country in the world to try and reach out, but with the rest of the world blocking the entire organization, extreme elements within Hamas prevailed - just like everyone anticipated. The million dollar question is, why did Israel do that? After all, Hamas was elected democratically, so why not at least try? Hamas had killed allot of Israelis but so had PLO done back in the days, and Israel had also killed a far larger bunch of Hamas-members including some of their top leaders. That's what peace negotiations is all about; ending the conflict, if there hadn't been any conflict it wouldn't have been called peace negotiations. I understood that once Hamas was isolated, they'd go extreme and start attacking Israel, so I'm quite sure Israels finest analysts were capable of figuring out that as well. But why? What does Israel gain from maintaining the conflict? Could it somehow be connected to the fact that if all Palestinians became peaceful, they might claim the right of return and Israel won't be able to deny them this? Could it be because the very existence of a Jewish homeland with an overwhelmingly Jewish population would be threatened by peace? After all, that's what Zionism is all about, it's not about sharing. David Ben-Gurion, first prime minister of Israel said: "We must do everything to ensure they [the Palestinian refugees] never do return" David Ben-Gurion, in his diary, 18 July 1948, quoted in Michael Bar Zohar's Ben-Gurion: the Armed Prophet, Prentice-Hall, 1967, p. 157.
Today, the Israeli army instructed 3 families (40 civilians including women and children in total) to leave their homes and move into a 2 levels house. The moment the three families cramped into the house, the Israeli army decided to shell them with rockets at it killing all except a father and his 7 years old son. In another incident, they instructed families to move out of an area that will be shelled and instructed them to move to Dair al Balah. As soon as they approached the outskirts of Dair al Balah, they were shelled by the Israeli army resulting in the death of 7 children and three women.
What's your sources? I've been hearing similar stories from a norwegian doctor who is one of only two western workers in entire Gaza, but as he's not a journalist and cannot investigate these claims (surgery operations ALL the time), they remain speculations. I don't see what Israel might gain from doing something like that. Maybe angry 18-year olds gone rogue though, they usually are very angry towards Palestinians.
Massacre of Two Families Medical officials at Al-Shifa hospital also confirmed on Monday morning the deaths of seven people, including four children all members of Al-Samouni family in the Zaytoon neighborhood of Gaza City. Family members who managed escape the Israeli terrorist forces shelling claimed more than seven people may have been killed. Jalal Al-Samouni said told Ma'an's reporters at Al-Shifa Hospital that more than 20 people were left inside the house which was bombarded by the israeli occupation terrorist forces, and he fears that many of them were killed. He explained that the neighbors gathered in the house of Arafat Al-Samuni who came to the area yesterday. He said that advancing Israeli occupation terrorist forces told residents to stay in their homes. Then Israeli occupation terrorist forces shelled the house, he said. Earlier also in the Zaytoun area, the Israeli occupation terrorist forces killed a five-year-old girl and her grandfather, members of Al-Hilou family. The girlâs mother was critically injured. All the victims were evacuated to Al-Shifa Hospital. The Israeli occupation terrorist forces intensified the shelling after midnight on Sunday, shelling four homes of Hamas leaders as well as home of Jamil Mizhir, a senior leader in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), in Al-Nussairat Refugee Camp in the central Gaza Strip (Thus targeting innocent children, women and women inside these homes and in the neighborhoods). Al-Umma University of Police Sciences in Al-Nussair neighborhood in Gaza City was also bombarded. A car was targeted west of Al-Shifa tower in Al-Shati' camp, and as a result two were injured. ***Updated at 15:05 Gaza time 18 Gazans killed overnight, including seven members of same family Date: 05 / 01 / 2009 Time: 09:41 Gaza â Maâan â Israeli occupation terrorist forces warships shelled Al-Shati' Refugee Camp in the Gaza Strip early on Sunday morning, killing seven members of the same family. A total Eighteen Palestinians were killed overnight as Israel continued fierce land, sea, and air attacks for a tenth consecutive day on Monday. Eighteen Palestinians were killed overnight. The death toll since the beginning of the ground invasion on Saturday rose to 82, and the total death toll since the beginning of the Israeli terrorist attacks rose to 521 and more than 2450 injured. Midmorning on Sunday, Israeli occupation terrorist forces warplanes bombed a house in the town of Beit Hanoon, where Palestinians were mourning the death of a paramedic who was killed on Saturday. Some 40 others were wounded in this most recent attack. Another Israeli airstrike targeted Abu Raida area in Khuza'a, east of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. Casualties were reported. Earlier, a man from Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip was killed by Israeli ground forces in the Al-Atatra neighborhood. Medics also said they transferred two dead bodies from Jabaliya Refugee Camp in the northern Gaza Strip to Kamal Udwan Hospital. Seven members of the Abu Eisha family arrived in a hospital torn to pieces, said sources at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. According to the sources, the parents and their five children were killed in overnight naval strike at their home in Al-Mashtal area in the north of Al-Shati' Refugee Camp, on the shore west of Gaza City. Palestinian medical sources also confirmed on Monday morning the death of six people from the Samudi family, including three children, as their home was shelled in the Zaytoon neighborhood of Gaza City. Earlier, Israeli soldiers opened fire towards residential houses in the Zaytoon neighborhood killing a five-year-old baby girl from Al-Hilou family and her grandfather. The girlâs mother was critically injured. All the victims were evacuated to Al-Shifa Hospital. http://www.aljazeerah.info/News/200...raeli Occupation Terrorist Forces in Gaza.htm
As for your question of why they do it; the answer is very simple! exert the most hideous crimes against the populous and hopefully they will rebel against the fighters or at least lower the morals of the fighters.