Israel are going to start WWIII

reports of top US general arriving in israel tonights lots of hand holding going on

You're all over the place SW.

Do you think the British should have bombed entire apartment blocks in Belfast that housed known IRA men? They didn't do that, why?

I suppose you think the IRA should have met the British on the battlefield in open warfare too.

Seriously, defending the genocide in Gaza at this point is frankly weird. If you don't think Israel has committed numerous violations of human rights and war crimes, then you must be on a wind up. Some people think it's cool to defend Israel disproportionate response, it's really not and I think they will regret it. Let the Stupid Americans do that.

I guess SW would also be ok with the British Army in the 1970's attacking farms in Cavan, Monaghan, Donegal and Louth because IRA members might be there.

Complete nonsense. They don't care about children. The way they see it they are killing future generations of possible Hamas fighters. If they could they would completely flatten Palestine. The IDF are absolute vile human beings.

The IDF are dropping bunker buster bombs in the middle of Beirut. That's their "precision" strikes.

Absolutely heinous

Israel are the ones dropping the bombs, the onus is on Israel to abide by international law and minimize civilian casualties.

Israel choose to bomb entire buildings with 2000lb bombs, rather than smaller ones or actually targeting the floor/apartment the Hamas fighters are on. A 2000lb bomb should not be used in a high population density area. Unless your goal/aim is maximum damage. I'm convinced if Israel dropped on nuke on Gaza, people would defend them saying, sure there was terrorists there and they were using human shields.

That is interesting (if you are right in suggesting if there was the political/military will from the countries with the peacekeepers they could be more aggressive under the mandate they already have). Unfortunately, it is not going to happen. The UN force there hasn't prevented Hezbollah rearming and setting up again after previous war, it hasn't intervened in trading of blows between Hezbollah and the IDF that was going on before the invasion. They are not going to do it now, when it is much worse and much more dangerous. I doubt they are equipped for it either. Probably both Hezbollah and the IDF are better armed and don't particularly care about the UN or International law etc., so they would just get themselves killed.

You didn't criticize Israel though, so we just have to assume you're ok with the massive civilian deaths they have caused. I mean you understand why Israel are dropping 2000lb bombs on apartment blocks and leveling them rather than using a smaller bomb or taking out the apartment the Hamas fighters are on. Maybe you can explain why Israel use the largest bomb they can actually drop, rather than a smaller one, can you explain that?

Hamas have been condemned since the start, I think it's widely acknowledged from the start here and by pretty much all on here that they are terrorist scum and don't care for ordinary Palestinians. Do we have to go back to condemning Hamas at the end of every message we type?

That's up there with escalate to de-escalate ffs and most certainly will fail again this time.

I, and many others, have unequivocally condemned Hamas, Hezbollah and any other terrorists that attack Israeli civilians. What they have done and continue to do is abhorrent. There is no difference between the taking of an Israeli civilian life or a Palestinian civilian life.

However, the key issue in my view is that of Israel's response - it is utterly disproportionate. A 2000lb bomb has a kill radius of about 700m. Everything in a 1.4km circle is destroyed. You'd be lucky to find body parts, let alone a body. In a populated area, the carnage is unspeakable. Beyond the 700m radius, there will be many injured - life changing injuries. And of the course, the infrastructure will be dust.

Added to that, the IDF are well known to snipe children, surrendering civilians, journalists, medics, nuns and yes, even sheep. They've even killed their own hostages. They are terrorists - no better than Hamas or hezbollah.

You say you don't agree with what Israel is doing, but you can understand it. Many would say the same about the terrorists - they don't agree with they are doing but they can understand it. When the Palestinian to Israeli kill ratio over the last 20 years or so is roughly 20:1, it's easy to see the disproportionality. And to also understand that the Israeli hasbara of "we're defending ourselves" doesn't stack up.

War is a terrible thing - there have been moves for a ceasefire in the last two weeks - the Israelis ignored it and went ahead and invaded Lebanon. The current carnage could have been prevented and the probable escalation in the region avoided.

I don't agree with what Israel is doing and I'm at the point where I no longer understand it either.

And it seems many many people are now coming towards the same view.

@SouthWesterly any response?

The arguments in defence of Israel's disproportionate actions are actually becoming infantile. Those posters would apparently give Israel an absolute carte blanche, a free for all. No hold barred. Kill at will. No deference to international law. No Palestinian is innocent. At the keyboard anyway…

Ref your middle paragraph - I understand Hezbollah had agreed to a ceasefire last week - then Israel assassinated the negotiators.

So it's not that Israel can't negotiate, they don't want to.

That also seems to apply to the Israeli hostages in Gaza - Israel does not want to free them.

Israel has abandoned the hostages and their families.