bobad - 01 Aug 16 - 08:30 PM

"What I may have said, and will say it again, is that Hamas starts wars with Israel knowing that they will retaliate then hides behind it's citizens so that it can use their deaths for propaganda."

What bobad says there is perfectly true, Hamas themselves make no secret of it, their spokesmen have even broadcast it as deliberate policy in televised interviews.

Disproportionate death tolls could have something to do with different approaches taken:

Israel:
15,000 missiles fired indiscriminately into Israel from Gaza since 2005 resulted in the Israeli Government creating "Iron Dome" - a system of warning radars that detect the launch of these missiles that provides the civilian population with audible warning of attack so that the population can enter thousands of shelters specifically built by the Israeli Government located in the areas subject to these attacks in order to protect the population.

Gaza:
15,000 missiles manufactured, stored, prepared and launched from within and from sites adjacent to schools, hospitals, and other sensitive location in the full knowledge that to protect it's own citizens Israel must engage those launch sites. While the IDF provide numerous and intensive warnings Hamas orders the civilian population of Gaza to ignore them, while the "fighters" and leaders of Hamas take shelter deep underground in concrete and steel bunkers that they have specifically built to protect themselves.

Israel's ultimate responsibility is to ensure the safety and security from attack of it's own citizens - it cannot be blamed for doing so - I would expect the same of my Government if this country came under attack.