From Ha'aretz (h/t Meryl Yourish):
According to reports from Gaza, dozens of Palestinian civilians were also killed in the fighting. The army says the fighting took place in a densely populated area, and Hamas gunmen sometimes using families hiding in their homes as human shields. The army also said the rules of engagement prohibit intentional firing on civilians, however in cases where a source of fire was clearly identified as coming from a home, permission was given to open fire without determining whether civilians were also present.And this is from the most Arab-leaning newspaper in Israel.
The officers said some of the Palestinian civilians were hit by "heavy and inaccurate" Palestinian fire. In one case the commander of the brigade reconnaissance force saw a boy of about 10 sent to bring a weapon from a dead gunman after another gunman was killed trying to retrieve it. The commander ordered his men not to fire and the boy delivered the weapon to other armed men.
Apparently, Israel cares more about Palestinian Arab civilians than PalArabs themselves do. For example, today Israeli police stopped an Ashkelon man from firing his own homemade rocket into Gaza:
Given that many Gaza rockets fall short and injure Palestinian Arabs, we see that Israel is better at protecting Gaza civilians both from rockets and from bullets than the Gazan terror groups themselves.Ashkelon resident Moshe Nissimpor decided that the best way to halt rocket fire from Gaza - in light of what he terms the government's failure to do so - is some vigilante justice.
Nissimpor developed a homemade 200-millimeter ballistic missile which he planned to launch from Ashkelon into the Gaza Strip.
"From this day onwards, we will push back to the stone age every place which dares shoot missiles into Israel's sovereign territory," he said Wednesday. "It is time the world understood Israelis' lives are not expendable."
"I'm afraid this is the only language the Palestinians understand, and this is the language in which we'll speak to them. I have many Gazan Palestinian friends who live as Hamas hostages. Once we bring an end to the rocket fire, Gaza's residents will also live in peace," he said.
Nissimpor arrived at the Ashkelon Municipality building with the missile painted black and lettered "to Hamas, from the residents of Ashkelon" in red, and was planning to launch it.
Ashkelon residents gathered round to cheer him on and protest the government's conduct, but at the eleventh hour, police stopped him from firing the missile and seized it.
"I wish there were more 'crazies' like me in Israel," Nissimpor said as the crowd was dispersed by the police.