I'm not saying their deaths are FINE because they were near Hamas. I'm only saying that they could get killed if they stick around it and should be aware of that. They are in no way "OK". But they exist in every war.

Terrorism is not a buzzword. Attempting to define "terrorism" is an arduous task, to say the least, but it is not a buzzword-although, some may use it in conjunction with other buzzwords. For example, Islamo-fascistic terrorist is a buzzword. Anyway, our own government, whether it is the DHS, State Department, or FBI, has a myriad of different definitions for terrorism. Most national and international groups have a consensus that using violence or threatening to use violence against civilians to enact political change is terrorism. Some groups, including some US government groups, include violence against military targets not in a state of combat to be terrorist. I think it is no surprise that Western and other major non-Western nations have either perpetrated or supported state terrorism. The Algerian War is a perfect example of terrorism committed by both the French and Algerian sides.

Hamas is labeled as a terrorist group (the al-Qassam Brigades, at the very least) because it previously used suicide bombings and currently uses rockets to target civilians. I believe Hamas would receive more sympathy from Western nations if it focused on using irregular tactics against the IDF instead of civilians. In the past, what may have been legitimate resistance or freedom groups have often derailed their mission by targetting civilians instead of military targets.

I believe that the rest of the world should leave Israel to sort this out and stop giving them a hard time. I personally feel the likes of Britian etc are too soft. Gaza is bringing in weapons through Egypt and if they are going to use them its obvious who they are going to use them against. Israel aint taking no crap, they are protecting themselves, just like the US is protecting itself from terrorism by bravely fighting in the middle east. Problems need to be confronted.

If most of the people don't support Hamas why is Hamas the legally elected government of Gaza?

Of which the UN Observers said was a fair unbiased election?

Unlike the US...

Hamas actually stated they would rocket israel.  Drive them into the sea all that.

Bush didn't say in his first term speaches "I will invade iraq."

The only reason there are so many civilian casualties is because Hamas willingly and delibritly uses civilians as human shields for PR tactics.

Lets say you have someone with a gun shooting at you and your family... and he has surrounded himsef with his family... who has done nothing to you.

What do you do?  Shoot back... knowing you are likely to take out some of his family on accident... or let him shoot at your family and you for the rest of your lives?

Yeah you're right he didn't say it, he said it less than a year later after being elected....

Also how would that not be similar to the US scenario? Doesn't DC have a civilian populatino as well? Last time I was there there were definitely people other than government officials working there...

You attacked them for no good reason, they bomb you back, by your book that's just fine and dandy.

Yeah.  Pretty much.  Assuming there is no other way to attack them... and the president of the US intentionally puts a bunch of children and women in the whitehouse.

The Israeli's warn the people that they are going to bomb these places... they warn them.... and Hamas instead of having them leave... puts them in the buildings using them as hostages.

A better analogy would be if Iraqi insurgents shot at US soldiers while the US soldiers started using their own children as bullet proof vests.

It's not "Oh hey, it's the same city and a few bombs went off target."

It's "Oh hey, the Israelis are going to bomb us... lets surround ourselves with as many innocent people as possible so they either have to bomb us and get bad PR or let us continue to fire rockets at them without any problems!  Lets put the sick, children and women directly at the rocket sites... or better yet... lets just put the rocket sites at schools!  Then kids don't have to go out of their way to be martyrs! "

Sources please. And they better be damn good ones.

How about one of the leaders of Hamas?

Let's see them then. I haven't heard of anything about that, but then again I've been busier than usual the past few weeks.

Right there though... clearly stating the women, children etc are being used as human shields.

http://vgchartz.com/forum/post.php?id=1656322

He has a lot more... PM him for them.

Hamas uses both Israeli and Palestinian civilians to attempt it's change.