Speaking at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs in New York on 6 November, Martin Dempsey, chairperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, praised the Israeli army for going to "extraordinary lengths to limit collateral damage and civilian casualties" during its summertime operation against Gaza. Dempsey lionized as "extraordinary" Israel's use of leaflets and "roof-knocking" to "[make] it known that they were going to destroy a particular structure." But as Gaza residents noted, the leaflets were meaningless given that no structure was safe from Israel s merciless bombing campaign, which targeted everything from hospitals and water wells to UN designated shelters overflowing with civilians who followed Israel s instructions to leave their homes.

An Israeli missile attack that killed 10 civilians sheltering in a U.N. school here early this month prompted a call for restraint from the U.S. government over what the State Department described as a disgraceful act. Yet what Israel used in that Aug. 3 strike, according to the United Nations, was a Hellfire missile a U.S.-made weapon. The incident was one of many in the ongoing six-week-old war in the Gaza Strip in which weapons sold to Israel by the United States and some European nations have played a prominent role.