Most of the casualties that day were military. Of the civilians casualties, a sizeable portion if not majority were killed by the IDF. As the electronic intifada pointed out, the IDF spent the course of a day bombing people with Apache helicopters, and accounts from Israeli hostages and security personnel confirm the shelling and bombing of houses that had civilians in them. This has been confirmed by Mondoweiss.

There is growing evidence that indicates that Hamas along with the other fighters in the coalition were indeed acting defensively.