Whatever pretext Israel has cited for launching massive air strikes on the Palestinian-controlled Gaza strip over the weekend, the high casualty figure among civilians makes this military action totally unacceptable. By Monday morning, the supposedly surgical and high-precision air strikes had killed more than 310 people in Gaza, according to Palestinian medical officials.

More than half of these were apparently members of the Islamist faction Hamas, which has ruled the tiny strip of land -- home to 1.5 million people -- for the past three years. The others were civilian casualties, including women and children.

Add a few hundred other civilians who were injured and the air strikes make it the most devastating clash ever in the more than 60 years of conflict between the Palestinians and Israelis. Whatever chance there was for peace has now been virtually wiped out.

Just how much "collateral damage" -- the military phrase for civilian casualties caught in cross fires -- is regarded as acceptable by Israel remains unclear. But to anyone with a sense of human decency, the figure is reprehensible, and the military action must be condemned in the harshest terms. It has made this Israel's unjust war.

The Israeli military and government must have known the unintended consequences of their decision, which they claimed was grounded on the constant barrage of rocket attacks by Hamas against Israeli civilian targets across the Gaza border.

Militarily, the civilian casualty is usually considered a secondary issue that can go as high as necessary to achieve the military objectives. Politically, there has to be a limit on what is the acceptable figure of collateral damage, but again, this depends on what the Israeli political leaders had hoped to achieve when they ordered the military operation.

It is looking more likely that the decision to go for a full-scale military operation in Gaza was calculated to appease the Israeli people as the coalition government faces a general election in February.

But in the process, Israel has virtually forfeited whatever chance there was for peace. Israel cannot wash its hands that easily and lay the blame squarely on the Hamas faction for the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians over the weekend.

The air strikes have caused much more misery than that caused by the few hundred deaths and injuries among the Palestinians. Gaza, because it is controlled by Hamas, has been blockaded for much of the past three years. On Saturday morning, Israel had allowed for humanitarian assistance to be delivered, only to pound it with bombs a few hours later.

For now and the foreseeable future, peace will be the last thing on the minds of most Palestinians, and probably many Israelis, too, for that matter. Even moderate Palestinian forces who had been in discussions with the Israelis to negotiate a settlement have been outraged by the weekend attacks and many seek to avenge the deaths of their countrymen.

The U.S.'s Middle East peace initiative held in Annapolis early this year (a process of which Indonesia is also a part) is now as good as dead, thus killing the one positive legacy that outgoing President George W. Bush had hoped to leave behind. The Oslo Agreement, under which the two sides had been discussing the prospect of a two-state solution, has also been completely derailed.

Once the international community gets past the condemnations (of Israel or Hamas), it should use its force to persuade both sides to cease and desist, and return to the negotiating table as soon as possible. This is going to be a tall order given the high emotions running among both Israelis and Palestinians. But the alternative will be worse.

In the meantime, we must brace ourselves to witness more violence and bloodshed once again. Let's hope that common sense will soon prevail and that this war will be short-lived.

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