Yes, but this is disproportionate. The people are walled in, they have no prospects, they can't go anywhere, they have no army. This bombing is disproportionate. This isn't defense. It's genocide.
War is disproportionate. It is not about "you shot two of my guys so I get to shoot two of your guys". It is about beating your opponent to the point that the rich fuck on the throne decides it is not worth having his peasants fight anymore.
Hamas, the de facto military and government of Gaza, attacked Israel. The IDF, the de jure military and de facto government of Israel are attacking Gaza. That is "war"
Is it genocide? Yes. Have Israel's government effectively been engaging in a slow genocide of the Palestinian people for decades? Yes
But this is largely no different than the mass bombings of Japan and Germany in WW2. Or any east asian town the US could find in the 50s and 60s. It is just that, for all its OTHER human rights violations, the US was very "white glove" during our subjugation of Iraq and Afghanistan so people forgot what a mass bombing is. Because it is not like anyone cared about all the wars in Africa (brown people) and Eastern Europe.
Do I think this is a horrific human rights abuse and real time genocide? Yes. But, again, that is "war". And Hamas have mostly just bunkered down and tried to play the PR war (which is somehow working for a terrorist group...).
This ends when Hamas surrenders or the IDF runs out of ammunition. Just like any siege. And if Hamas gave even the slightest shit about the Palestinian people? They would be negotiating to surrender to a third party and get tried in The Hague rather than allowing the IDF to take them alive.
I am advocating for nothing. I am explaining what is happening and that this is how things have happened for hundreds of years.
Well, no, that is a lie. I am advocating for the leaders of Hamas to turn themselves over to the international court so that this war can end. Avoid getting Disappeared by the IDF, but very much remove the "justification" for the IDF to siege Gaza.
It is more that, over the past few weeks, all the major talking points have been "did Hamas rape that specific woman" or "did Hamas decapitate that baby or just set it on fire and kick it around a bit" and so forth. And, regardless of what actually happened with that hospital, "the entire world" is going to always assume it was Israel.
This is an attempt to point out how incredibly stupid all that was. because maybe Hamas raped the woman they stripped beat, and maybe killed (have we heard anything since her mother claimed she was in a hospital?). They definitely have raped plenty of other women. Maybe Hamas decapitated those babies and maybe they just burned them alive and desecrated their corpses. But they have decapitated plenty of other babies and people. And so forth
Which is less about "Well, the IDF is justified for all their crimes against humanity now" and more "Well. Both sides are pretty evil and I guess this is a war?"
So what you're saying is noone is allowed to talk about the terrible things Hamas do, it's only ok to talk about the terrible things Israel do? Any time someone says Hamas did a bad thing people like you immediately point to Israel and say "what about them".