The phrase became commonly known in the US and British shock and awe campaign in the last Gulf War.

Collateral damage is ‘military speak’ for the deaths of innocents, women and children, in military operations. The phrase itself sounds innocuous enough, but to put it into perspective, one must take a look at the situation in Gaza with Israel’s latest military campaign there.

Let us make it clear from the start, Hamas did breach the truce with Israel which was brokered by Egypt on 19 June. It lasted 6 months and expired just a week before Christmas. Since then, Hamas has fired rockets, hundreds of them into Israel, so one cannot say that this is simply an act of Israeli aggression. Israel said that there are times for peace and there are times to fight, saying that bearing the rocket attacks in mind, now was the time to fight.

Israel has the right to defend its citizens, but it does not have the right to mercilessly kill women, children and old men in their homes. What must be understood is that Gaza is one of the most densely populated pieces of land in the world. Israel says it is targeting Hamas’ military capabilities, adding that it will not make the mistake of thinking that it can crush a political ideology in a military campaign. So what does this mean? Israeli warplanes have targeted police stations, Hamas security compounds, tunnels into Egypt, government and university buildings. They claim to be targeting militants, and this may well be the case.

But let us put it into context. Gaza’s population density could be likened to that of Malta, so what we must picture here is a guided missile attack, by a top of the range military aircraft in somewhere like Hamrun. Imagine a precision strike on the Hamrun police station and you start to get the picture. The price in innocent lives is tremendous and no one can refute this, having seen the sickening reels of news footage coming out of the enclave.

The UN Security Council has joined international calls for restraint by urging an end to all violence between Israel and Gaza. Yet the US, Israel’s strongest ally on the council, said the onus was on Hamas to stop rocket fire. The US may be right, but the Bush administration has again proved that it is out of touch with the realities of the world. The world recognises that Hamas is a militant organisation and that it must be dealt with, but the world also recognises that fighter jets should not be hitting targets that are next door to apartments, schools and hospitals.

One truly hopes that President-elect Barack Obama will have something more constructive to say or do about the matter in a week or so. Israel conveniently denied that there was a humanitarian crisis in Gaza before the attacks, with various government officials saying that a convoy had been let through the morning of the attacks. Very, very convenient indeed. Again, look at the newsreels from the hospitals and you get to see a very different story, there are no drugs and there is not enough equipment to go round to treat people’s injuries. Now Israel is debating the call up of thousands of reservist troops. It is going to get uglier. Hamas must stop the rocket attacks and perhaps what is even more worrying is the seeming increasing impotence of the rival Fatah faction, headed by Mahmoud Abbas.

Israel must stop killing civilians as they sleep and eat in their homes. 2009 looks set for another intifada, which will result in more deaths of innocents. No one can forget the images of that Palestinian man caught in the crossfire between Israeli troops and gunmen, cradling his injured child and sobbing for help.