The word massacre is loaded and does not represent the typical reality in Gaza. Most estimates place the ratio of combatant to civilian casualties within the range for armed conflicts, nevermind guerilla warfare settings.

> With all due respect, massacring civilians because “you have no other choice” is historically not an excuse holding up in courts.

The thing is, under the rules of war, protected installations (such as residential areas or even hospitals) lose their protection if they are being abused by a warring party for military operations. Otherwise, it would be an open invitation for anyone to do what Hamas did - force the other party between either risking getting shot at or violating rules of war.

No one forced Hamas to embed themselves among civilians. They did that on their own.

> protected installations (such as residential areas or even hospitals) lose their protection if they are being abused by a warring party for military operations

You should maybe research where key millitary apparatus of the Israeli state is located. The headquarters of the IDF for example.

I am familiar with IDF headquarters, they are located in a clearly marked base, you can see it on Google Maps. This is similar to French army's Hexagone Balard in Paris or the Italian and Dutch armies HQ for example, from a cursory search, ask your local LLM for more.

Can you say the same about Hamas?

It's in a residential area. I'm pointing out the hypocrisy. The whole area is heavily militarized, there are bases everywhere, citizens are automaticlaly enrolled into the IDF - every Israeli citizen in a certain age group can be considered a legitimate millitary target if you follow your logic.

The arguments you are using for attacking Palestinian infastructure and people are more than applicable to Israeli infastructure and population.

In international law people have the right to resist occupation through millitary means. In a small area under occupation then there is no means to create a millitary setup that matches what the 'good guys' consider to be legitimate.

If you want to be consistent then allow Palestinians to have a millitary, air space, airports, ports, navy, jets, nuclear weapons etc. And then you can fight them on equal terms.

Yes. Enable them in their effort to kill every jew

> No one forced Hamas to embed themselves among civilians.

Of cource Israel forced them to. "Force" means to use violence to let someone do certain things, i.e. if they don't do those certain things, they get violence. And looking at the records of the past decades, whatever Hamas (among everyone else in Gaza) did or didn't, Israel did violence to them. So whatever Hamas do, it's forced by Israel, since if they don't, Israel does violence to them.

On the other hand, no one is forcing Israel to bomb civilians right now. No one will do violence to them if they stop bombing.

Your one-sided definition of "force" is patently ridiculous on its face.

"Everything Hamas does is forced by Israel's actions, nothing Israel does is forced by Hamas"

As a belligerent occupying power, Israel has a legal obligation to protect the Palestinian population too, not just their own.

Slaughtering the Palestinian population to get at Hamas is a war crime no matter the excuses on tries to make to justify it.

Do rules of war apply here? Israel does not even consider Palestine to be a state.