There are words and then there is reality in a photo: http://t.co/Q9uFndjUQf pic.twitter.com/91QA5G2VJm

— Micah Grimes (@MicahGrimes) July 16, 2014

Though the Israeli government has made a continued point of emphasizing how targeted their strikes are, 80% of those being killed are civilians according to the UN. A reality made all too clear for the media yesterday when four boys were killed in front of journalists on a beach in Gaza. The boys were playing on a beach before being struck by Israeli missile fire which helped raise the current death toll to 208 Palestinians and 1 Israeli.

The lethal attack on the boys crystallized for many the dynamics of the conflict where Israel carelessly strikes Gaza with little regard for civilian deaths then blames Hamas for its error. In this case the boys were believed to be targeted because they were running away after Israel struck a nearby structure.

Alon Ben-David, a well-sourced Israeli military affairs analyst, said on Israeli television that the first beach blast targeted a structure that Israel believed was used by Hamas. He said the second blast might have been aimed at the running children, perhaps mistaken for militants. He added that given the military’s technologically advanced surveillance equipment, “it is a little hard for me to understand this, because the images show that the figures are children.”

Of course if 80% of the casualties are civilians how discriminating can these attacks be? Or maybe Israel has declared all of Gaza a free fire zone with any Palestinian being fair game, including children.

These killings are getting considerable attention because they happened right in front of reporters, but the now daily slaughter in Gaza is getting much less attention, particularly from the American press. The establishment American press is doing everything it can to make Israel’s residential bombing policy seem like a reasonable and proportional response to rocket fire that is being almost entirely neutralized by the Iron Dome technology America help provide Israel at the cost of $720 million in US tax dollars since 2011. The bias is deadly and takes the pressure off Israel to be part of a peace deal.