When Will You Take Notice?

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Violence and civilian casualties are more common in the occupied territories than Palestinian Americans and liquor stores. It is so common that I have to admit I generally scan right past reports of IDF clashes in Gaza and the West Bank, sadly it has become so common I find it negligible. I have to say my opinions regarding the conflict have grown out of extensive research, conferences and my own hunger for information. I only wish more people would voluntarily expose themselves to the copious amounts of information available in this information age in which we live.

However some days I stumble upon information that strikes me as shocking to the whole world, something that is immune to bias and spin, today was one of those days.

At least 19 Palestinians, including ten children, and 7 women were killed, early Wednesday, by Israeli tanks in the northern Gaza Strip.

Palestinian witnesses say artillery shells from Israeli tanks struck seven houses in Beit Hanoun in the pre-dawn hours, Wednesday. Hospital emergency rooms in Gaza City say more than 50 people were wounded in the attack - most of them women and children who were struck by the shells as they slept.

"We pulled out bodies, all women and children, dismembered, without heads or hands," Khaled Abu Saada, a Palestinian ambulance driver who evacuated the wounded to hospitals, told Ynet News.

One of the women standing near the street said she had lost four of her children in the incident.

Is it so hard to sympathize with the pain and suffering of other human beings, our brothers and sisters regardless of race or religion? I already hear the objections, "it's an isolated incident", "these things happen in war", "Israel is only defending itself". Those excuses are allowed to permeate once, maybe twice but I want you to remember this incident and remember it the next time it happens and the time after that because I know most of us have already forgotten the countless times it has happened before!

update: Olmert says the bombing on homes in Beit Hanoun were caused by, "Technical failure" and that further mistakes "may happen". Thanks pal, next time you massacre a bunch of women and children we'll rest easy knowing you warned us ahead of time!