With all due respect, shouldn't a mention of use of Hamas of children as "Human Shields", or the booby-trapping of houses, or use of UNRWA schools (or nearby) as places to shoot from, be mentioned to remind the reader on the possible cause of why there are these empty seats in the classes ?

A day after a kindergarten in Sderot was bombed by Hamas rockets the parents got together to clean the place up and repair the damage so that the children would suffer as little trauma as possible. It is time for the Palestinians to start PROTECTING their children and not exposing them to more hate, incitemnt ,and danger. Don't wait for others to help you....help yourselves. A refuge camp for 60 years....get real!

What happened in Gaza was a harsh, but inevitable lesson in "tough love" from the outside world. One can only hope the lads make the obvious connection between what happened, and the bearded morons they see running about on the streets with AKs, screeching about the need for holy war & the destruction of their neighbor, and the constant, daily setting up of mortar and rocket launch sites. Reality itself finally reached out & cracked them and their families upside the head for forever playing a bad, bullshit game. Tears & sniveling for the downside of Islamic jihad? Damn little sympathy for the Farfour generation.

Why do you think Israeli army should come to your doorsteps? For killing you? No Mohamed; they don't even want to kill militants from your country! They just want your people to stop firing missiles at our children. Killers of your friends are not Israeli, but your own people who play hide and seek with Israeli army and choose to hide amongst innocent civilian and children like you. Our sympathies are with you Mohamed, trust us, keep everything out of your mind; study deeply; grow up and take charge to normalize relations with Israel by removing cause of this unnecessary violence. Cross headed people who are now ruling your unformed country should be removed from power.

why the sad faces when this is what everyone longs for and hopes happens? since the childrens' shows in gaza praise dying for the islamic cause and encourage children to spill their blood for the land, this is just the logical result of such brainwashing. i wish they would make up their minds, either if they are the brave warriors who love death and welcome martyrdom or if they are the pitiful victims of victims. can't have it both ways.

HAMAS, why dont u clean up schools, support your children, or maybe dont shoot from schools. ONLY GUILTY OF THIS IS HAMAS. Monsters

The run away in the tunnels. They hide in the schools and mosques and they use the civilians as shields. H - Hiding A - Amongst M - Mosques A - And S - Schools www.yeshabulletin.com

Perhaps if the parents of these children had worked to stop the missiles into Israel for so many years and had not voted for a terrorist regime, Gaza would not be ruled by Hamas and the classroom would be full today.

That means Hamas should be punished but never will be by the International community

But only 3 are missing in this class of ... How many, 30 / 40 / .... My sympathy yes. No child should be hurt.

All the predictable concern and bother about these kids - not a moment spent on actually how these kids were placed and kept in danger - deliberately. The Israelis care more about these kids than Hamas - otherwise they'd all be dead, given the destruction - its amazing that not more did perish.

It's hard to say which is more shameful and upsetting; the revelations in the article or the cheerleading rationalizations offered in the talkback section. Those who seek to apologize for our national behavior know no limits to their delusions of our own righteousness nor the demonization of our Palestinian neighbors. You should be asking yourselves why our government is paying legal aid for the war crimes tribunals that will eventually follow. We are not in the right on this.

the Hamas secret army being bred from age 6 to 16? I have a lot of photos if you are interested, send me your email.