Army artillery shells killed mostly women and children in the northern town of Beit Hanun, sparking world-wide outrage and vows of renewed Palestinian attacks inside the Jewish state.
Israeli officials were quick to express regret for the killings, order an investigation and offer humanitarian aid to the wounded.
But at the same time, officials presented the strike as an accident in an offensive against what they say Gaza-based militants, who have allegedly fired rockets into the Jewish state since Israel withdrew settlers and troops from the coastal strip last year after a 38-year occupation.
"It is quite clear that it was a tragic error, criticised in Israel itself and for which we have expressed our regrets," foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.
"But you have to put the attack in the context of the continuing rocket fire by Palestinians -- which the Palestinian government has done absolutely nothing to stop -- after we left Gaza Strip in September 2005, without any intention of coming back, having dismantled our settlements," he said.
Israeli military operations have failed to stem the alleged rocket fire -- during a week-long operation in Beit Hanun that preceded Wednesday's deaths, more than 50 Palestinians were killed, but Israeli army allege, more than 50 projectiles fired from Gaza landed in Israel.
Israel claims that its military operations in Gaza are justified self-defence against the rockets.
"Every country in the world has an obligation to protect its citizens," wrote columnist Ben Caspit in the nation's second-largest daily Maariv.
"The truth is that until they stop firing... rockets upon Israel, Israel must keep firing back.
"They want to uproot us from here, wipe us from the face of the earth. And what can we do -- we do not intend to allow that to happen," Caspit wrote.
But Palestinians and Israeli critics say the military operations in Gaza amount to indiscriminate force against civilians.
"No country would remain indifferent to rocket fire on its cities," wrote Zeev Schiff, a columnist for the liberal Haaretz daily. "The only problem is the lack of proportionality regarding Israel's response.
"Indeed, even in a clear case of self-defence, the killing of many innocent civilians, and especially children, is intolerable," Schiff wrote.
In a report released on the day of the Beit Hanun deaths, Physicians for Human Rights called for Israel to cease its military operations in Gaza, saying the majority of those killed since late June have been civilians.
"Experience shows that it is impossible to fire shells and missiles at the centres of cities in the densely-populated Gaza Strip without harming civilians," it said.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2006