“Rocket fire from Gaza rarely causes casualties...”

But, that doesn't stop Israelis from using disproportionate and deadly force in response.

Peretz, the Israeli defense minister who reportedly delayed a major air offensive so Palestinians could curb the rockets, said all restraints were now off.

"We will act with all our might and use all our means against any group that acts against us," said Peretz, whose hometown, Sderot, comes under frequent rocket attack.

This is notwithstanding the fact that . . .

Rocket fire from Gaza rarely causes casualties, but it disrupts life in the southern Israeli towns where the projectiles fall.

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At midday Tuesday, the Israeli military said more than 100 rockets had been launched at Israel since Friday.

It said the cell it targeted Tuesday intended to launch Katyusha rockets, which have a longer range than the homemade ones militants usually fire.

As usual, our job is to believe whatever they tell us, not to question it. Even if this is true, given Friday's massacre, it hardly seems surprising.

And in response to these pesky rockets, Israelis rain wholesale death upon Palestinians.

Abbas accused Israel of trying to "wipe out the Palestinian people."

* * *

A weeping Hekmat Mughrabi, her veil soaked with blood, said her 30-year-old son, Ashraf, and another 13-year-old relative died. The young man, hearing the explosion of the first missile outside his home, ran to the door to calm children who had been on the roof making paper kites.

"He was shouting to the kids, 'Don't be afraid, don't be afraid,'" and hadn't even finished his sentence when the second missile hit, she said. "My son died in my arms."

This is why people condemn Israelis, not because they're Jewish, but because they are belligerent. There is no justification for this disproportionate brutality.