Propertionality is quite subjective.
I am also not buying these numbers. How many 15-17 year Hamas fighters or those actively assisting war efforts are out there? In the West you view them as children whereas Hamas views them as men. I would not be surprised to find out that even younger children are used by Hamas.
The West is being repeatedly manipulated by Hamas. I believe nothing I hear and only half what I see. There have been staged videos with actors despite claims of countless losses.
Hamas's style of fighting causes the disproportionate losses. Hamas literally commit war crimes by fighting from within civilian areas.
It's almost like you and many others just view this whole war in some weird vacuum.
Hamas can end this war and their people's suffering by surrendering. They choose not to.
You're surprised a country at war is using a blockade to restrict the movement of goods for their enemies?
I am more surprised that people so dependent on another country for their most basic needs chose to wage such an unprovoked and barbaric attack knowing full well of the probable consequences.
Proportionality could be seen as subjective if the numbers were close, in this case, they aren't close at all.
The numbers of deaths are registered in cooperation between NGO's and The UN and World Health organisation. I'd believe them over the Israeli government personally. The Israeli government have a strong, lengthy track record of bald faced lies, i'd be more than happy to provide examples (they are extensive). The UN sure isn't pefect, but at least there is a degree of tranparancy and accountability to their processes.
But sure, if its convenient to think that they are trumping up numbers of dead children then go ahead, they're just dead kids after all.. who cares, Israel has a right to defend itself!
Members of Hamas responsible for October 7 should surrender to the ICJ, give over the hostages, and they should not have conducted the attacks on October 7, concurrently Israel should have taken a more humane approach to this conflict, I also think that the relevant Israelis who are complicit in war crimes should be submitted to the ICJ.
It's funny that you're saying that im viewing this conflict in a vacuum, as your perspective seems to be quite a-historical and not acknowledging the deeper context that lies behind it. Saying that i'm viewing it in a vacuum makes zero sense, i've provided historical and political context to my arguments, more than you have..
Again you're acting incredulous about me mentioning the blockade, but you don't seem to understand the issue. The blockade has been active since 2007, during which long periods of no direct conflict between the parties has occured. That is nearly 20 years of harsh economic and social restrictions, that is hyper oppressive to the people. Additionally settlers continue to take palestinian land.
You're acting like all is fair and good, Israel holds 85% of the land, and with unending financial and military support from the U.S. they can basically kick the palestinians around as much as they want, that's what they've been doing for decades.
Hamas's militant stance is not acceptable, but when you harshly oppress people, militias rise to power, armed groups emerge, disenfranchised people become radicalised. I can guarantee you that most palestinians would not have wanted the October 7 attacks to have occured, not just because it was wrong, but because they would have known the consequences.