(v) The use of weapons, including indiscriminate artillery shelling and landmines, against the civilian population

(xi) The use of weapons, including landmines, and indiscriminate artillery shelling against the civilian population

At the same time, Qassam rocket and mortar shelling of Israeli targets by Palestinian militants continued.

The attacks include multiple attempts to kidnap soldiers, massive shelling attacks, Katyusha rocket fire and numerous gunfire attacks.

(e) To stop immediately the use of weapons, including landmines and indiscriminate artillery shelling, against the civilian population, which runs counter to principles of international humanitarian law

(m) The continuation of indiscriminate aerial bombardment of civilian targets and indiscriminate artillery shelling of the civilian population, as well as the use of civilian premises for military purposes

In addition to death and destruction, the Palestinian population continues to be terrorized by the constant barrage of artillery shelling and the excruciating sound of Israeli warplanes hovering over their cities, towns and villages.

(c) To stop immediately the use of weapons, including indiscriminate artillery shelling and landmines, in particular by the Sudan People's Liberation Army Movement, against the civilian population, which runs counter to principles of international humanitarian law

And, just a few weeks before the shelling of Yeonpyeong, North Korea showed a delegation of American scientists a new and previously undisclosed uranium enrichment plant, which will increase the regime s capacity to make nuclear weapons.

Contrary to territorial withdrawal, cessation of violence can be achieved only bilaterally. Both sides should commit to an end to assassinations, shelling, bombings, and any other form of attacks on the other side s military targets and citizens.

But so is torturing children, which is how the civil war in Syria actually began more than two years ago. And is killing civilians with chemical agents morally more obscene than shelling, shooting, or starving them to death?

Hamas was taken by surprise when Israel attacked, killing its military leader, Ahmed al Jabari, and destroying most of its Fajr 5 arsenal. It responded with massive shelling of southern Israel, and managed to send several missiles toward Tel Aviv and one toward Jerusalem.

North Korea has long been adept at flaunting its willingness to take risks, provoking a crisis in 2010 by sinking a South Korean naval vessel and shelling a South Korean island. This spring, it conducted a nuclear test and a series of missile tests, accompanied by a stream of bellicose rhetoric.

Its sinking of the South Korean corvette Cheonan and the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island in 2010 were unprecedented, and raised inter Korean tensions to their highest level in decades. Today, following the North s third nuclear test, we seem to have entered the most precarious stage yet, with the regime declaring that it will never surrender its nuclear option.

The sources of those tensions are clear North Korea s shelling of South Korea s Yeonpyeong Island and its flaunting of a modern, previously unknown, nuclear plant the US led armada now cruising through the South China and Yellow Sea and China s claim that the South China Sea is an area of vital national interest akin to Tibet.

During the first Taiwan Straits crisis in 1954, China began shelling the offshore islands Quemoy and Matsu, threatening to liberate Taiwan. As the US contemplated a possible nuclear attack on China, Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies quietly told US President Dwight Eisenhower, If there is a war over Taiwan, it is your affair and not ours.

The Sderot attack comes on a day marred by several other attacks perpetrated by Palestinian terrorist organizations against Israeli civilians, including the shelling of the Israeli community of Ganei Tal by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization, in which three agricultural workers (two Palestinian and one Chinese) were killed and six other workers (all Palestinian) were wounded.

Responsibility for convincing Assad to stop bombing and shelling opposition held areas would fall primarily on his international allies, Russia and Iran. In doing so, they should bear in mind that it was Assad who led the country into civil war by choosing a military solution when high level members of his own government and political party argued for a negotiated settlement.

There are risks for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki as well, because Turkish military strikes on Iraq s northern provinces could undermine the Kurdish support on which his government increasingly depends. Both Sunni Arabs and Kurds already resent al Maliki s mild reaction to Iran s recent shelling of Iraqi territory an attempt to strike at Iranian Kurdish militants fleeing across its border with Iraq.

Thanks to satellite television, the world had a front row seat to watch the citizens of Sarajevo, who were kept alive by UN food deliveries, being killed by shelling and sniping from the surrounding hills. Today, the UN is delivering an increasing amount of assistance to Syrian refugees who have managed to escape to neighboring countries, while those who have not are being slaughtered.

In 2010, the South Korean public was sharply critical of the military s failure to retaliate immediately following the North s sinking of the Cheonan, a South Korean warship carrying more than 100 personnel, and its shelling of Yeonpyeong Island later that year. After the recent landmine blasts, by contrast, President Park Geun hye would not back down from her demands that the North, which denied planting the mines, apologize.

There are now more than two million Syrian refugees in bordering countries and more than four million displaced persons inside Syria. With the murder of peaceful protesters, the shelling of residential quarters, the execution of soldiers who refuse to fire on their countrymen, and the use of chemical weapons, a picture has emerged of a regime that is systematically defying the most basic international moral and legal standards.