DavidS the people we know today as Arabs descend from many different peoples and weren't all simply a handful of nomadic traders before Islam as you claim man. Perhaps you haven't heard of the Ancient Egyptians, the Nabbataens, the Asyrians, the Sassinids, and a number of others to name a few.
I totally agree that it is a horrible thing when people are caught in the crossfire in a combat zone. But mine and everyone from the UN to the European Union's problem is things like flechette tank shells being fired into densely populated neighborhoods, which the IDF who undoubtably with an extremely in-accurate weapon like a white phosporus artillery shell, or a flechette tank shell isn't just going to hit the buildings they are forced to destory, due to militant activity. It's going to maximise the killing of those that it shouldn't have.