Not only that, but the Israeli government is warning civilians away from likely military targets.

RESIDENTS at certain addresses in the Gaza Strip have been receiving unusual phone calls since the Israeli air assault began on Saturday -- a request that they and their families leave their homes as soon as possible for their own safety.

More unusual than the recorded message is the Arabic-speaking caller, who identifies himself as being from the Israeli defence forces.

Dipping into their bag of tricks for the updated Gaza telephone numbers, Israel's intelligence services are warning Palestinian civilians in Gaza living close to Hamas facilities that they may be hurt unless they distance themselves from those targets.

In some cases, the warning comes not by telephone but from leaflets dropped from aircraft on selected districts.

So much for the notion that Israel is being indiscriminate in its attacks. they know where they are going to attack and are trying to get the civilians out -- a tricky task given that Hamas has located its facilities of military value in the midst of the civilian population.

And Israel has done a pretty good job of avoiding those civilian casualties, based upon the statistics here.

But there are conflicting reports about how successful the air force has been avoiding civilian casualties. On Sunday, Israeli officials, citing Palestinian sources, said of the almost 300 fatalities reported until then in Gaza, all but 15 were members of Hamas. Hamas officials said yesterday that one-third of fatalities were civilian.

Last night the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said at least 51 civilians had been among those killed.

I'd be willing to guess that the actual number is probably somewhere between those put out by Israel and the staunchly anti-Israel UN group, which is often little more than a mouthpiece for the Terrorstinians. In other words, only about 10% of the casualties are civilians, while the rest are legitimate military targets -- predominantly members of the military wing of Hamas and Hamas-controlled police forces that have been involved in terrorist activities. Even the attack on the Islamic University of Gaza was intended to pinpoint military research being conducted in laboratories at the school -- another legitimate goal for a nation that has decided to put an end to military attacks on its people.

Hamas, of course, offers no such warnings to the civilian population of Israel before launching unguided missiles into civilian areas -- but those who support the terrorist government of Gaza don't want to address that little detail.