No, they are not innocent civilians. After Israel made the goodwill gesture of dismantling its Gaza settlements in 2005 and pulling out of Gaza, the people of Gaza returned the goodwill gesture by increasing their attacks! The people of Gaza democratically voted for Hamas, which at this point is no different from ISIS or the North Korea regime in its level of evil. The people of Gaza are mostly Muslims who support treating non-Muslims as second class citizens, which is the core fundamental cause of this conflict. The people of Israel right now live side by side with Muslim citizens of Israel as legal equals. Until the people of Gaza vote to treat non-Muslims as legal equals, and treat non-Muslims at least as well as the 20% of Israel's citizens who're Muslim are treated, Israel is by far the more moral side of this conflict.