Yesterday, we wrote here that "Israel should declare a complete cease-fire in the Gaza Strip for a predetermined period, during which it will not engage in any violent actions, neither assassinations nor incursions. Simultaneously, it should call on the Palestinians to hold their fire as well."
What we feared has come to pass - and for the Palestinians, even worse: At least 19 Palestinians were killed yesterday during a sustained Israel Defense Forces artillery attack on the town of Beit Hanun. Of these, 11 were members of a single family, including women and children.
No excuse can justify this atrocity. When artillery batteries aim their shells near a residential neighborhood, such a disaster is inevitable, even if it is unintentional.
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It has now become conclusively clear that the campaign against the Qassam rocket launchers in Gaza can no longer be entrusted solely to the IDF. The chief of staff, the chief of command, the divisional commander, and the other officers who bear moral and operational responsibility for yesterday's disaster had failed even before this, during Operation Autumn Clouds, which ostensibly ended on Tuesday. That operation sowed only death and destruction, without bringing an end to the Qassam fire. On the contrary, it only increased it.
Haaretz
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