Israel strikes Hamas, kills more than 200 people

A couple of days ago, I had a post about the Palestinians firing rockets into Israel.

Well the Israelis struck back today:

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israeli warplanes retaliating for rocket fire from Gaza pounded dozens of security compounds across the Hamas-ruled territory in unprecedented waves of air strikes Saturday, killing at least 145 and wounding more than 310 in the single bloodiest day in Gaza in recent memory.

Hamas said all of its security installations were hit and in response fired several medium-range Grad missiles at Israel, reaching deeper than in the past. One Israeli was killed and at least four were wounded.

Well obviously, if someone keep firing rockets into your country, retaliating is an legitimate option. But check out some of the details from the New York Times story:

A military operation against Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, had been forecast and demanded by Israeli officials for weeks, ever since a rocky cease-fire between Israel and Hamas broke down completely in early November and rocket attacks began in large numbers against Israel. Still, there was a shocking quality to Saturday’s attacks, in broad daylight on about 100 sites, as police cadets were graduating, women were shopping at the outdoor market and children were emerging from school.

The center of Gaza City instantly became a scene of chaotic horror, with rubble everywhere, sirens wailing, and women shrieking as dozens of mutilated bodies were laid out on the pavement and in the lobby of Shifa Hospital so that family members could identify them. The vast majority of those killed were Hamas police officers and security men, including two senior commanders, but the dead included several construction workers and at least two children in school uniforms.

I get it Israel: National Security. Your enemies are all around you, so you must be strong. But as an individual observer with no allegiances to either Israel or Palestine, it makes me sick to my stomach to know that so many of the innocent-- working men, mothers and little children-- were killed.

Governments and the "patriotic" will justify these killings to no end, I know, I've tried to argue with them. But I wonder if the "patriotic" would say the same thing, if they saw the bodies of those two children carried out of the rubble and brought to their crying parents...