sickening

I've felt torn about the current war (Lebanon and Gaza).

So of course when I read today that 5 were killed in northern Gaza when an Israeli shell hit a crowd outside of a block of flats, I felt pangs of guilt. And when I read about the 11 year old and his grandmother being among the victims, my stomach turned.

Then I read this:

Israel said the buildings in northern Gaza belonged to members of the Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and that it had warned residents to evacuate the buildings before the attacks to avoid civilian casualties.

Nothing angers me more than seeing a group warned and then not protecting civilians that will be in danger. Undoubtedly this is deliberate, with the idea that civilians dying will increase world pressure on Israel. The same sort of thing happens in Lebanon. Hezbollah hides itself among civilians and stores it's weapons in residential areas. What is Israel supposed to do, drop arms and let Hezbollah destroy them? Thank god civilians have been directly warned through leaflets, rather than relying on their government, or god forbid, Hezbollah to be responsible.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5209964.stm

A friend's family lives in Kiryat Shemona. Their apartment building was just hit.