Pretty clearly the IDF isn't trying to kill as many civilians as possible, though it must feel that way when your family has been wiped out by them. Just as it's pretty clear that Hamas aren't trying to kill as many Israelis as possible.

However it also seems pretty clear in both cases that they aren't particularly worried about killing civilians, and they aren't trying too hard to kill as few civilians as possible either.

The two sides in this conflict have a great deal in common, taking into account their different circumstances. Ehud Barak's comment when asked what he would have done if he had been a Palestinian was an honest and revealing one: "I would have joined a terrorist organization."   And of course back in the days of the British Mandate, that is precisely what his predecessors did.

In a real sense this has to be recognised for what it is - a civil war. And they are liable to be the worst wars of all, and typically religion is seen as defining the sides.

There's no point in demonising adversaries just because the brutal and horrible things they feel driven to do are different from the brutal and horrible things your own side feels driven to do. And no point in disguising the truth that they are indeed brutal and horrible things to do.

The important thing to realise in this internecine conflict is that these actions aren't just brutal and horrible, they are also self-defeating and futile.

Those hundreds of dead children aren't some tragic price to be paid for Israel's survival, or for Palestine's freedom. The innocent dead on both sides are the very thing that most threatens Israel's survival and Palestine's freedom.