Time for a UN Peacekeeping force in Gaza and the West Bank?

You or I do not know exactly what happened on the 7th mainly because Israeli's muddied the water with false claims of beheadings, mass rapes and torture.

I do not support Hamas's actions but I do not live in Gaza.

Attacking the rocket launch sites: OK
Withholding fuel, water and food down to the minimum to comply with international law: OK
Using targeted precision munitions to kill Hamas fighters and military commanders:  OK

But they went way way beyond that.  On day one they publicly announced 'no restraint' and within a week were boasting about how many 2,000ib bombs they'd used.  Such have a lethal range of hundreds of metres.  We now know many of them were unguided and of course even if they took out a Hamas fighter or two each would have killed many many more civilians - a clear war crime.  And we've seen the destroyed houses and hospitals - another war crime.  We've seen the videos of soldiers shooting unarmed white flag wavers, there's been the tank shelling of cars and the widespread use of artillery - hozizontal weaponry it totall inappropriate in urban warfar unless you aim is to kill civilians.

All in all Israel has acted as if Palestiniians don't count as human beings, that the rules of war don't apply to the IDF and yet all the time turning world opinion against them and failing to get hostages released or Hamas neutralised.  In short they have bene both evil and stupid.  Just like the year before and the year before that and  . . . .

But Hamas and their Iranian masters/sponsors are actually worse, far far so.

I disagree - i think Israel's actions make sense if you put them in the context - ie pursuing an internationally supported criminal operation, embedded, in a hostile population

Using thousands of unguided Mk84 bombs in densely populated urban terrain.   Bound to cause hugely disproportionate loss of civilian life and such is illegal.

'Weighing approximately 2,000 pounds, the MK-84 is capable of penetrating up to 11 feet of concrete and spreading lethal shrapnel in a 400-yard radius.'


www.acc.af.mil/News/Article/3256056/mk-84-conical-bomb-assembly/

I think everyone has the right to self defense. Israel has 'declared war'.btw. If the 'Palestinians' confront and repel the Israeli forces and then go on to take territory, I would see nothing morally wrong with that (in itself). However, what 'the Palestinians' would do with such a situation would be likely horrendous - ie Jew Bonfires etc

The Palestinians wont play ball on the diplomatic basics that allow a stable order to exist between rival groups (a group in particular) and themselves and so, the result is chaos

The Palestinians are not 'allowed' to have armed forces and have had to resort to terrorism. They cannot, given their denial of an official armed section, confront Israel on a level field.

The Palestinians are the occupied people and an occupied people very rarely play ball, as you say, with the occupier unless they accept the status quo and resign themselves to the loss of their freedom.