The killed and wounded numbers used in this cartoon were reported by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. As the AP reports, their totals conflict with Hamas figures that range higher (The homeless figure was reported by the BBC.) But both dispute Israeli reports. However, the disagreement over militant dead has played into mutually exclusive claims of victory by both sides. Honestly, I don't think noncombatants - i.e., regular people, who are suffering the most - on either side view this as anything but a total waste of life and time. Certainly not the Israelis who live near Gaza. As Gideon Levy forcefully observes, Olmert's little war had "ended in failure." Yet Palestinians had already begun to turn away from Hamas before the seige; the sense that Hamas rockets have provoked the destruction (with actually justifying it) has only alienated the Palestinian people further. As one man who lost his home to Israeli bombs put it to the BBC:

"I blame Israel and Hamas both," he said. "I just want to live."