Hezbollah shattered two days of relative calm in northern Israel on Wednesday, spraying the region with more than 230 rockets that set buildings and forests ablaze, wounded at least 33 civilians and killed a man as he rode his bicycle in front of his home.
Hezbollah's largest barrage of the war -- 80 more rockets than struck the Jewish state during any other day of the three-week-old conflict -- came as several thousand Israeli ground troops continued their sweep through southern Lebanon, clashing with Hezbollah fighters in at least 11 towns.
Also, "the Israeli military announced it had completed an inquiry into the airstrike Sunday on the Lebanese town of Qana that killed civilians huddled in a three-story building":
In a statement, it blamed the incident on Hezbollah for using civilian areas to facilitate attacks, including in Qana, and found the building was targeted in accordance with military guidelines. The statement also expressed regret for the incident and said the building would not have been attacked had the military known civilians were inside. Most of those who died were children.
I'll withhold comment for now. Suffice it to say that I, too, blame Hezbollah for hiding behind civilian shields. But that hardly makes this any more palatable. And I'm not sure whether or how much to blame Israel. Perhaps the airstrike could have been conducted more carefully. Perhaps these deaths could have been avoided. I don't know.
Just as there have been civilian deaths in Lebanon, an unavoidable consequence of war, so too have there been civilian deaths on the Israeli side throughout this conflict and the larger Israeli-Palestinian conflict that goes back decades. And so have there been civilian deaths on all sides.
Life and death. A common, shared humanity. Is there not some hope for peace even as the bombs keep falling?
Tragedy is the only word that comes to mind. It seems to be the appropriate word to use.
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