It's beyond denying that much of the behavior and tactics employed by both sides of this conflict should be considered terrorist in nature. But, from a military standpoint, only one side operates with the deck stacked so heavily against it --the Palestinians. Moreover, the consequences of such a broad military mismatch have turned out pretty much as one might expect. Amnesty International (AI), which has called for an end to the blockade of Gaza and denounced it as "collective punishment," reported that Israel's last major military operation in Gaza Operation Cast Lead which lasted 22 days, has led to what today remains a humanitarian crisis. That relentless December 2008 offensive, in which white phosphorous was used by the Israelis, left more than 1,380 Palestinian dead, including over 300 children. Gaza's infrastructure was essentially decimated and thousands of Palestinians were bombed into homelessness. Israel's losses during the operation included just 10 of its soldiers and, regrettably, three civilians.
According to Amnesty International, during that operation, Israeli forces:
"carried out indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks against civilians, targeted and killed medical staff, used Palestinian civilians as human shields, and indiscriminately fired white phosphorous over densely populated residential areas."
In addition, a report issued by the CCR pointed out:
"The scope and nature of the Israeli military operation in Gaza show that its aim cannot be accurately described as just self-defense. The principle of proportionality is incompatible with the targeting of schools, mosques, shelters, homes in crowded refugee camps, civil society institutions and civil government buildings, targets that are civilian in nature and almost certain to result in a high number of civilian deaths and casualties."
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