Uri, why don't you join christianne amanpour, the new representative of bleeding hearts, alquaeda, hamas and hezbollah and her jewish husband james rubin sing kumbaya as she enable islamic terror. you make me sick, you cowards. the school was a hamas setup, they killed the kids by firing from near and setting explosives within. IDF has nothing to apologize except for you, a gulible journalist who turns our stomachs. Kish mir in tuches.

You obviously did not see the video of the Israeli air force showing distitictly how militia men load canons from the school yard. By the way if the UN will not report as the terrorists wish their life will be endangered. Does the media show how the Hamas uses civilians as a live protection? That is in keeping with the international law, right?When your house will be attacked by rockets sent from civilians dining room you'll speak a little bit differently...

.. to recognize what vermin most Israelis are.

The video of "canons" was untrue IDF propaganda. It was innocent workers moving equipment out of a factory for safe keeping. Of course you probably don't care anyway.

Every Israeli who serve in West Bank or Gaza or Lebanon Heard many time the famous expression ‘a good Arab is a dead Arab’ Most of us who serve in army could care less if Arab Civilians are killed by us, Some of us even enjoying it, I saw it when I was in West Bank. So please cut the nonsense and be honest like # 32. To the rest of the world we selling propaganda and lies.

how many civilians did you kill in Iraq and Afghanistan? Do I need to remind you that last month you killed 60 civilians in one bombing in Afghanistan? Where was your outrage then? It's war, sh*t happens. Just like we don't plan to fire at our own soldiers and kill them, we have on intention to fire at civilians.

So Chanalu thinks Jews are "vermin". Now we know that Chanalu is a follower of Leni Riefenstahl and friends. Not surprising.

Marvin Jaffee, if the Arabs in Gaza choose, with the UNWRA help to shoot from behind their children, it is their choice. And please do not desecrate the memory of the murdered Jewish community of Europe but using the term' the final solution.' It is not only inappropriate, it is obscene. To those of us who took the trouble to actually read the Hamas Charter it is quite obvious that they are the true ideological descendants of the Nazis.

Did you keep track? We did. You may have counted if you weren't too busy passing out candy.

was it before or after the response form Israel? Be quiet and let the big boys do the work that should have been done years ago. GO ISRAEL! Gazas howling like a hungry dog. That's justice.

Oh my God, what is wrong with you Israel ? attacking schools that belong to the UN, and for heaven's sake I beg you not to say that missiles are fired from these schools, because that makes it worse ,I wonder how many idiots will believe this.

As you say the civilians in Gaza suffer terribly. What else do you suggest we do? Take your family and live in Sderot .Then we will see how well your heart bleeds for the civilians in Gaza which are knowingly sacrificed by the Hamas.

As far as I'm concerned, one religion is as ludicrous as any other and mostly the means for a few people to control a whole lot of others. Having said that, I hope to hell Israel won’t listen to anybody’s BS and teaches Hamas a few lessons they will never forget. War is a nasty business and when all is said and done it goes back to who started it. Blaming Israel for civilian deaths in Gaza is like blaming the Brits for Dresden or the US for Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Someone made the difficult decision to do what they believed was the most expeditious way possible to bring WWII to an end, and whether anyone did or didn't approve of the methods, thank heaven, it worked. Maybe the people who support Hamas directly or by their silence need to get a taste of the consequences of that support and silence. How long was Israel supposed to have put up with daily rocket barrages? Until those a—hats had improved their aim, got their hands on weapons that reach all of Israel, or what? Not even considering the difference in the general outlook on life of Jews vs. that of – insert fanatics of your choice, - based on what type of mental aberration is one group of civilians/children more valuable than those of another group? Why is the world up in arms over dead Palestinian children, yet, when Israeli kids get intentionally murdered by the bus full, it's almost “Oh, well, too bad! Such is life in the Middle East”??? I don’t want to hear about me speaking from the safety of the US, either. Until I was 7 years old all I knew were air-raids, bombs, constant fear and hunger; all thanks to a demented group of people with a sick fixation on Aryan Rassenreinheit (racial purity), lust for power and world domination. Their excuse was the Treaty of Versailles, Czechoslovakia, then Poland, then Lebensraum in Russia and “It's all the Jews' fault.” This time it's the occupation, the isolation, the fence, and, and, and once again and still “It's all the Jews' fault!” If there were one smidgen of proof that a relatively small number people such as the Jews is as clever as to manipulate the universe and everything in it, the last thing I want is for them to be harmed. Hell, I want to know how it's done and learn from them. Not only have they outlasted every horror thrown at them since time immemorial, but unlike those who try to stuff their religion of peace down everybody's throat, Jews in general seem content to set a good example and don't threaten to kill anyone. If it weren't all so idiotic, brutal, and such a waste, it would be funny to see one bunch of nuts after the other trying to get rid of a people who, for whatever reason, simply won't go away. Doesn't anybody ever learn anything from history?

So, the "UN school" in Gaza was destroyed, and the UN Jew haters, and the Gaza Jew haters don't like it. Welcome to the party pal! Your party!

Gaza: MP3 Telephone interview with Uri Avnery Evening Jan 07 2008 http://morris108.wordpress.com/2009/01/07/gaza-mp3-telephone-interview-with-uri-avneri-evening-jan-07-2008/

From my half Jewish point of view, this is the most balanced article I have read on Ynet. The death of any civilian is regrettable. One can argue about the lesser of two evils forever but the lesser of two evils IS STILL EVIL (and it still hurts). I’m not for a moment saying that Israel isn’t justified in going into Gaza, but please show a little empathy to anyone that is going through the pain of losing a loved one.

I'm believed a man like you don't have the right to live in israel . 8 years israel has been restrain it self .It under constent teror and all the world do nothing bet when israel got to the red line there has to be a limit .I don't believe there is any country who restain itself for 8 years !!!!!! so israel doesn't need to feel guilty about there offensive .and for you uri you need to live in shderot and than you has the right to response.

Uri !! there are hundreds of heart breaking stories about cruility and savage of israel's army. I hope that these stories be documented and published as soon as possible. Just one case that has been occured in our neighbourhood-Zaitoon-: This afternoon , the red cross personal has found four injured childrens setting around their killed mother... !! Just imagine the psychological effect ...!

When a policeman kills a bystander while trying to prevent a felony, the felon is charged with murder. This is known as the "felony murder rule" in the US. Your justifiable anger is misdirected when you accuse the policeman of murder instead of the felon -- Hamas. Leon

Yes and surely Israel must pay a very heavy price in the future. Thank you from a palestinian now under fire of the most savage army in the history. Reading the comments (mostly israelis) inensifies my will to continue resistance with all means. All these comments to this article and many others must be collected, analysed and published in all languages as soon as possible.

To S Awaad - I am an Israeli citizen and a Jew and I am sorry for what my government is doing to the people of Gaza. Their suffering is inconceivable - no human being, from whatever side in any conflict, should fail to be moved by what you are now suffering, and the conditions in which Gazans have lived for years now. It makes me ashamed to see the comments of the other Israelis here.

Let's consider the proposition. Gazan's are just innocent bystanders in this whole Hamas-Israel brouhaha and are simply unfortunate victims of indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks. Is any part of this true? Well, the latter part is easy to disprove--the attacks are neither indiscriminate nor disproportionate. Although any loss of civilian life is unfortunate, a 20% non-combatant rate of casualties for an urban military conflict is remarkably low. I don't mean 20% of civilians dying, of course, but rather that non-combatants comprise about 20% of all casualties. These figures come both from the UN and from Palestinian sources (interestingly, the number of non-combatants listed by the UN matches the number of "women and children" claimed by Palestinian sources.) Given that a number of victims were a result of targeted assassination of Hamas leaders--practice explicitly permitted under war conventions--the actual number of civilian victims is remarkably low. While the total number of dead appears high, this is a natural outcome of the military strategy and tactics employed by Hamas. The bombing is also not disproportionate, as the number of missiles and other projectiles is significantly lower than the number of rockets launched by the Hamas and other assorted thugs from Gaza. Their own ineptitude should not serve as a guide for the kind of retaliation that is "proportionate". The Hamas defenders' claim of proportionality is laughable under international law. Had Israel exercised the same kind of indiscriminate tactics used by Hamas, far more people would have died. Ineptitude and lack of resources by one side should not serve as an excuse to protect them. Now, let's consider the other part--innocent bystanders. Gazan's are not bystanders. They have enabled and empowered Hamas in their quest to destroy their neighbors. Most of the Gazan's may not share Hamas objectives explicitly, but like Germans in the pre-WWII period, they condone and support Hamas actions. They don't mind the terrorism and are not willing to do much about it. They voted for Hamas leadership and, therefore, brought on their own heads. Serbs voted for Slobodan Milosevic and it did not seem to trouble the West when they demanded his removal from power. Why should Gaza be different? So Gazan's are not mere bystanders. Those who live in the same houses as terrorists, especially with their bloodthirsty leaders, bring about their own fate. When a house of a militant or a military commander is bombed, those who live with him or next to him, knowing full well the extent of his philosophy and his crimes, are complicit. They don't deserve to die, to be sure. And IDF often goes to great lengths to separate the military targets from civilians. The trouble is that not only do Hamas and other Palestinian and Arab militants try to hide behind civilian human shields, often the civilians are proud of their "defenders" and are willing participants in this cover. So these are not mere bystanders and they are not innocent. To be sure, this is not always the case. Some human shields are quite unwilling participants--and use of human shields is a war crime. What is amazing, in this case, in most conflicts, cowardly military may use human shields among the civilian population of their opponents. But only Hamas, Hezbollah and other Islamic radicals are cynical enough to use their own families and those of their own supporters to protect themselves from retaliation, so that they can later use the deaths as weapons of propaganda.

Do you really want to end the bloodshed in Gaza? Disarm Hamas. Completely. Then watch their own neighbors hack them to bits for causing the destruction of their homes and loss of loved ones. Gazans may support Hamas's objectives, but not at the expense to their own livelihood. When push comes to shove, they want to keep their hands clean. If that means Hamas doing the dirty work, they'll do that. The trouble is that Hamas crossed the line. They have been searching for and killing all those who don't agree with them or peacefully support their political opponents. Hamas might have been elected by the willing population, but now they keep them intimidated and cowering. Yet, no one in the international community speaks out for these "victims". Those who support Israel often don't distinguish between different Palestinian groups. Those who support the "Palestinian cause" don't care for the diversity of views (nor do they recognize the terrorist nature of the organization). They want to see high casualty counts because it gives them better propaganda weapons in battling Israel. If they really wanted peace, they'd be more selective in their support. If they really wanted peace, they'd make sure that Hamas had no weapons of any kind and condemned Hamas's terrorist actions rather than justifying them as acts of "last resort". If they wanted peace, they would have suffocated the very notion of destruction of Israel that is the only thing on the minds of Hamas militants (if it means suffocating the Hamas members who feel that way, so be it). You want peace? Then act like you want peace. Don't whine and rant after the fact.

One IDF commander has already told the UN that the Israeli army was to blame for the shelling of the UNRWA schools. There is no evidence that Hamas was using the school as a position to fire from. The UN gave Israel's army the exact GPS coordinates. The Israeli army - as in so many wars since 1948 - showed criminal indifference for the wellbeing and safety of Palestinian civilians. I find it incredible that it would let wounded and trapped civilians to their fate without doing anything. For this it must be held accountable. There are laws of war.

After reading the responses to this article, I think Israel has become one huge Lunatic Asylem where the inmates are all delusional.

Your belligerant correspondents talk as if Israel and the IDF had 'no option' but to attack to protect themselves, but this is totally untrue. Throughout the ceasefire, Hamas had been hoping for a civilised response from Israel, but in vain. The ceasefire was one-sided: Israel continued throughout to blockade Gaza, arrest fishermen going about their lawful business, block exports, prevent humanitarian and medical aid from freely reaching Gaza and so on. Israel has the complete power to make peace any time it chooses. It chooses not to because your leaders and your people are land-grabbing imperialists who are prepared to risk losing the lives of a few citizens to ahieve their long-term genocidal aims. Israel is rotten to the core and the much vaunted concern of your leaders for the lives of their Jewish citizens is a hypocritical front that deceives fewer and fewer people outside Israel.

One day, i was deeply convinced about a possible peace between israel and lebanon. I was a supporter of 14 march, i was against hezbollah, but beleive me now i feel a deep hate toward every israeli in the earth, i see in every israeli face chairs pieces of the children of gaza and qana. You killed the possible peace. You made every lebanese a supporter for nasrallah.

Jessica, no children should have to pay the price of hatred, I know as an Israeli and as a mother how dear our children are. The children of Gaza have the right to live and play, go to school with out fear. So too, do the Israeli children - maybe you should send a message to Hamas, to change their charter, change their indoctrination of hate on the childrens programs on TV, change their philosophy of using their civilians and children as hostages for media sympathy. For Hamas a dead Palastinian child is just another occasion to gain sympathy for their cause from the world and the media. It is time that the Palastinians stand up and take back the Gaza Strip, elect a rational Government. I promise you, the day that happens, we will gladly help them make the desert bloom, help their economy, help raise the standard of living, welcome them freely to work with us side by side, and let the children of all religiions play and laugh together!.

The indifference of Israelis is frightening, but on the other hand. What can we do as civilian Israelis? The army and government are acting of their own accord and we are powerless, but to arrange humanitarian aide perhaps to the Strip.