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As the six month anniversary approached, repeated IDF violations interrupted the truce throughout November and December in what clearly were planned provocations to encourage a response and provide justification for an all-out attack.
On December 18 alone, Israeli warplanes bombed a Khan Yunis workshop destroying it as well heavily damaging nearby houses. For weeks, attacks escalated. Palestinians were being killed and many other wounded. Property was being destroyed. The siege remained fully in force. In desperation, Palestinian resistance factions responded in self-defense as international law allows.
Israeli officials hyped the danger to create popular outrage and enlist international community support. On December 25, prime minister Ehud Olmert demanded that rocket attacks stop, saying "otherwise, I will use power (to do) it." In Egypt, foreign minister Tzipi Livni said Israel intended to topple Hamas through a planned operation, whether or not calm returned, and deputy defense minister Matan Vilnaei told Israeli radio that "Israel is about to take a cabinet decision of waging a wide scale military campaign against the Gaza Strip." On December 27, Operation Cast Lead followed, an operation six months in the planning to reign terror on a defenseless civilian population.
For eight days, indiscriminate land, sea and air bombardment was intensive against civilian infrastructure targets, including homes, schools, mosques, hospitals, municipal buildings, UN facilities, charitable foundations, fishing boats, and civilians visible in public.
On day eight, a ground operation followed despite international appeals for a halt. Indiscriminate bombing and shelling continued. Hundreds of deaths and injuries were reported. Thousands sought shelter for their safety, but all targets were fair game making no place off-limits to attack. Human shields were used. Snipers shot civilians waving white flags in cold blood, including women and children. Entire families were killed. The Al-Samounis lost 29 members when Israeli forces shelled their house, leveled the property, and massacred them.
On January 18, when hostilities officially ended, 1,413 Palestinians were killed. An estimated 922 were unarmed civilians, including 313 children and 118 women. Another 255 were police officers, not involved in hostilities, and at least 5,300 Palestinians were wounded, many seriously enough to lose limbs, suffer brain damage, and/or experience severe psychological trauma.
Under the Hague Regulations of 1907, Fourth Geneva, Geneva's Common Article III, and various other international laws, civilians are protected persons. So is civilian property. Attacking them is prohibited. War crimes are clearly defined. The principles of distinction and proportionality apply:
-- distinction between combatants and military targets v. civilians and non-military ones; attacking latter ones are war crimes except when civilians take direct part in hostilities; and
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