Israel-Lebanon

When confronted by Israel's excesses I sometimes can't find the right words. I think in this instance it's sufficient to quote an Irish Times report (a paper with no disernible political bias, it has tended to express a belief in the rights of Israelis and Palestinians to secure homelands, a view I'm wholly in sympathy with), which says it all. Others, considering the extreme violence Israel is inflicting on the civilian population of Lebanon, are speaking in terms of ethnic cleansing, a process that Israel has employed in the past. So, over to the Irish Times:

'The civilian toll continued to mount in Lebanon yesterday as Israeli planes struck dozens of targets. Nine civilians, including two children, were killed when they were hit by a missile that struck a bridge in the southern port city of Sidon . In the southern city of Tyre , rescue workers pulled nine more bodies from the civil defence building that was hit on Sunday in an Israeli strike. Close to 200 civilians have been killed in Lebanon since the Israeli offensive began last week, when Hizbullah attacked an Israeli border patrol, killing three soldiers and capturing two. Five more soldiers were killed when they gave chase into Lebanon .'