At its core, your one-sided argument attempts to reduce the issue to a "with Israel or with Hamas" false dichotomy, which doesn't help the discussion here. I am pro civilian, and the civilians deaths are, as we speak, racking up in Palestine, so that is where we need to look to literally stop the bleeding. Preventing future harm (ensuring safety) to civilians in Israel and in Palestine is something we can discuss how to do after we stop the ongoing harm to them.
Purely political ultimatums, like insisting on destroying Hamas before the civilian bombings stop, don't help the peace process, and they're made by people who openly reject peace via an equitable, 2 state solution.
So, I'll reiterate: Israel is currently bombing civilians, and should stop, so aid can enter and the civilians can be helped and perhaps peace can someday be achieved. But bombing Palestinian civilians (read: NOT Hamas, mostly civilians) only harms the chance of peace (which is why Bibi is doing it).
No amount of twisted excuses justifies dropping a JDAM on a residential apartment building full of civilian men, women, and children. No, not "every single building we collapsed was launching rockets". Implausible. No, not "we got a cell phone ping from a Hamas dude inside the building". Does not justify the bombing. No, not "we warned people via the Internet we cut off from them". They have a right to remain in their home, unbombed. No, not "they had a human shield". The goal is to save all civilian lives, not just Israeli ones, and "human shield" lives are worth exactly as much as any other life, Israeli or otherwise, so killing the human in question is also unacceptable.
Maybe there are no good options, but that isn't an excuse to commit war crimes via indiscriminately bombing civilians. The ground troops currently killing Hamas fighters seem totally reasonable, were they not paired with attacking civilians, blocking of international aid, indiscriminate bombing, etc. Perhaps a better one would have been to appeal to the UN before killing over ten thousand civilians via terror bombing. Israel may think itself the judge, jury, executioner, and enforcer for international law, but it is not. Indeed, the consensus of the international community is that Israel should stop acting out of emotion and Bibi's politics, and stop their terror bombing, so we can all take a breath and see what peace or resolution can be found by the international community.
As an aside, in the following quote, you're literally talking about Israeli bombs exploding children and collapsing entire apartment buildings on entire families, so obviously a sensitive subject. Your heated feelings aside, I think it's inappropriate for you to try to gaslight people on such a grim matter:
> The problem, of course, is that it's really Hamas, not Israel, that's killing civilians
I doubt the victims would agree with such a hurtful lie, were they not exploded by a JDAM. Consider what the victims would have preferred Israel do. Really put yourself in their shoes, we are all human beings here: suppose a Hamas fighter really did flee into a tunnel which passes under your huge, multistory apartment block. Would you be alright with Israel leveling the whole block, killing you, your entire family, your neighbors, your friends?
Ok. Please explain how you'll get Hamas to stop firing. They have sworn not to stop firing, literally never. Even if Israel surrenders and lets them kill all Israeli (their stated intention) they would still not stop. They've actually gone on TV to say that.
Israel is not bombing civilians. IDF is bombing terrorist targets. The reason civilians die is that Hamas is forcing these people, at gunpoint, to stay in buildings Hamas KNOWS will be bombed, while firing at IDF soldiers from within those buildings.
So please explain what will make Hamas stop firing? Because if the answer is enforcement, you're just suggesting doing what the IDF is doing ... Do you seriously have the slightest doubt Hamas will have any qualms about shooting at whoever "the international community" happens to be?
> ... and see what peace or resolution can be found by the international community.
The international community will help rebuild Hamas, because it'll get them political wins. After which much more people will die.
> ... Would you be alright with Israel leveling the whole block, killing you, your entire family, your neighbors, your friends?
You don't get how Hamas works at all. They don't incidentally run behind civilians. Hamas is not hiding behind civilians. Hamas is using human shields. They are shooting at Palestinians, regularly killing a bunch of them (it'll be blamed on Israel anyway, and even if it isn't ...) forcing them to stand between them and IDF soldiers, locking them up, without food, in buildings they are operating from.
Given what happened to Israeli soldiers, and what Hamas has done in the past, YES, I would like the army to use weapons to attempt to blast us out, knowing the potential consequences. Compared to being tortured and put in full harms' way, constantly threatened by terrorists, yes, I'd prefer the "shorter pain".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Shifa_Hospital#2007_Fatah%E...
Hamas threatened the WHO doctors to help them execute people brought into the emergency room. Yes, I like to fantasize that that would be past my limits and I'd actually prefer to be executed, even try to kill someone asking me that, rather than help.
As for your demands, nobody has to explain how to get Hamas to do anything, because that is a goal whose priority is secondary to preservation of civilian lives against the terror bombing of civilians which is ongoing as we speak. Israel must stop, and only THEN can we discuss how to deal with the next issue. The priorities are, in order of highest to lowest
1. Stop violence currently being perpetrated against civilians (address most immediate ongoing harm)
2. Stop blocking aid to civilians (address less immediate ongoing harm)
3. Discuss/Negotiate security for civilians (address future harm)
3 doesn't come before 1 or 2.
The solution to getting international law implemented is enforcement, just like any other law. Enforcement ... on Hamas. And that is totally lacking. Hell, what the IDF is doing is the only thing being done. Everything you suggest comes down to punishing Israel for attempting to enforce international law, BECAUSE Hamas kills civilians. Does it really need to be stated that this will achieve the opposite of your stated aims? That it will lead to much more death in the future?
> The next step is up to them to figure out, but "commit war crimes" isn't an acceptable answer.
Firstly, Israel is not committing war crimes. IF infrastructure is used for military purposes, it can be targeted. Hamas uses hospitals, mosques, UN compounds, ... as bases to launch attacks from, to kidnap and store hostages.
Secondly, clearly committing warcrimes is OK. Simply put: your suggestion would forgive war crimes by Hamas (and Palestinian civilians), and encourage more of them, by giving a LARGE reward to war crimes. How can you make this statement and say it is against war crimes?
> I do not find it acceptable to kill 10 civilians in retaliation for 1 civilian being killed, nor do I find it acceptable that such 10x revenge killing of civilians is allegedly done in the name of saving civilians.
The problem, of course, is that it's really Hamas, not Israel, that's killing civilians. Palestinian civilians are forced, at gunpoint, to stay in buildings that are about to be bombed.
You suggest letting this tactic (which is a war crime, of course) stand.
To put it simply: the UN (the WHO specifically) helped Hamas execute wounded people brought into the emergency room at Al Shifa hospital. This has gone without consequences for Hamas, but it was also a war crime on the part of WHO doctors. And before you say this sounds like a conspiracy ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Al-Shifa_Hospital...