Without making a personal judgement, I'm sure Sandwich would point out that a lot of this comes in response to the deliberate targeting and thus murder of civillians by Palestinian terrorist organisations, including one which now forms the government.
So Sharon's logic there is that because a few Palestenian extremists murdered our civilians, I will use the arm of my government to murder your civilians. I see. No wonder Iran loves Israel so much 
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Mmm.... that would be an oversimplification. It's not a course of action I believe works, but I understand the logic due to the old IRA campaigns. Essentially, it's the use of troops as a police force, raiding houses, etc, alongside retroactive punishment by destroying suicide bombers' houses (as often foreign benefactors will reward suicide bombers' families with cash).
For the most part, and simply by dint that there are Palestinians alive, it's obvious there is not an explicit plan to kill Palestinian civvies. That does not mean they give fair regard/value to said civillians lives, or that it's proportionate force to use M-16s against stone-throwing kids, but I'd say there is a world of difference between accidental deaths and the intentional, ordered and sole targeting of civillians.
Unfortunately, I'd also say that world of difference is pretty much eroded by a) the sheer number of civillians killed (and apparent disregard for that) and b) the number of troops who do murder, and go relatively unpunished for it (the guy who shot and killed a British journalist springs to mind). I view neither side as better than the other, just wrong in different ways, and the key to peace is to right both wrongs. Somehow.
In any case, the Palestinian arguement is equally wrong when put into these types of simple terms - the Israeli army kills Palestinian civillians, so they go out and murder similarly innocent Israelis.
