The promised land

I heard that the Israeli forces attacked the compound of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza yesterday, it is a well-known location in the area marked with blue UN flags. The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, expressed "strong protest and outrage" and demanded an investigation.

According to the Guardian newspaper, Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, told Ban later that troops shelled the building in response to Hamas gunfire coming from within, but nonetheless said it should not have happened. "It is absolutely true that we were attacked from that place, but the consequences are very sad and we apologize for it," he added. "I don't think it should have happened and I'm very sorry." ..as indeed should probably not have happened with the attack on the press building on the same day, or countless other far less public but more greatly populated sites over the days of this conflict.

The New York Times quotes Christopher Gunness, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, as saying that in a meeting with its representatives on Thursday, Israeli Army representatives “privately admitted” that the source of the militants’ fire was several hundred yards away from the compound.

Ok, lets imagine that's the case, or lets play devil's advocate and imagine rather that it were not the case and that shots did come from the compound. Shooting at an area, and here I'm making reference predominately to the countless non-well-known Gaza locations over the last 20 days, that contains aggressive, non-friendly elements but that also contains non-participative persons makes me think as metaphor, of a police action at a bank robbery where the armed bank robber leaves slowly from the bank with a woman and child hostage in front of him/her. ...we just shoot them all do we? That's a simple solution isn't it, then we can all go to lunch. Of course, as with the conflict in hand the 'simple' solution in this case completely lacks humanity and empathy with the spirit of fellow human beings. This planet should have left all that behind with the middle ages.