the Justification of Israel's wars no one has thought of *op ed

By Noah Cytrynbaum '28
As Israel fights wars in Gaza and Lebanon, it finds itself in a situation where the only viable option appears to be the use of overwhelming military force against its adversaries.

This lethal approach, reminiscent of the tactics employed by the Allies during World War II, will inevitably lead to significant civilian casualties—an outcome that is always tragic and should never be desired.
We know what occurred on October 7th, where 1,800 innocent Israelis were injured by Hamas guns and grenades, with about 600 surviving their wounds. For over a year, Hezbollah has relentlessly targeted civilians with rocket fire. In light of these actions, Israel believes it's only recourse is to obliterate the terror organizations that perpetrated these crimes.
Militarily, Gaza's terror armies do not fight like Hezbollah. Hezbollah has a massive arsenal, a sophisticated tunnel network, Iranian-trained personnel and adheres to the conventional way of fighting. This means that they will retreat from an area and launch assaults on the enemy lines. 
Hamas and its allies engage in combat from within the areas controlled by the IDF, utilizing an extensive network of tunnels. Their unwillingness to surrender complicates the situation, compelling Israel to eliminate them and eradicate the resources they rely on for warfare.
Knowing this, Hamas and its allies purposefully use civilians as human shields, protecting their individual operatives, weapons, or hideouts. As a result, civilians will inevitably die.
In the context of fundamentalist Islam, martyrdom is celebrated and valued highly. Therefore, Hamas leaders view their civilians as "shahid", or martyrs, as Hezbollah employs similar tactics. 
This challenges Israeli military morality to the very core. In fighting these enemies, the IDF must use extraordinary force. Civilians die en masse, and many more are internally displaced.
However, Israel has expressed their concern for civilian casualties and provided numerous public health and warfare warnings to the citizens of Gaza and Lebanon.
The IDF uses all sorts of methods, including mass evacuation orders, leaflets warning of strikes, and tens of thousands of texts and calls. According to the IDF, 40 million leaflets have been dropped and another million calls and texts have been sent. 
It also deploys roof knockers (non-destructive bombs that hit the roofs of buildings, causing a loud boom to warn civilians to escape). The IDF claims 1,000 of these have been used since October 2023.
As of October 2023, it has claimed that 1,000 strikes had been aborted to prevent civilian casualties. It is December 2024 now, so think about how much more Israel has done since. 
This has allowed the death toll (that would naturally come with a war like this) to be relatively low. 
Meanwhile, the IDF has managed to crush Gaza’s terrorists, destroy everything they use, and wipe out their command. The same or a similar fate will come for Hezbollah. 
Even if Israel is not to blame for all of this death, such a large loss of life is tragic in any context.  
     Potentially, half of Israel’s strikes on Gaza were on what Israel calls “power targets” which are significant to their war effort. 
“Power targets” are buildings that, if destroyed, will convince the civilian populace to pressure Hamas to stop its terror. It follows the logic, “Why should any fanatical regime stop fighting if its cities are beautiful, its people support the war, and it feels largely immune to enemy strikes?” 
The Allied Powers in World War Two devastated German, Japanese, and Italian cities, with the idea that those cities’ civilians would revolt against their own leaders and push them towards unconditional surrender. Also, these people had bunkers to hide in, and the people of Gaza do not. 
Still, buildings designated as power targets need a specific military use, even a small one. This often includes buildings Hamas and friends use as bases and hideouts.
Israel causing such severe destruction of Hamas’ resources and personnel likely factored into the hostage deal in November of 2023. Hamas likely realized it needed a pause in the fighting.     
Many people have critiqued Israel’s offensive in a small minority of its strikes. When the Air Force strikes a power target that will result in mass casualties, and it can afford to warn civilians, and it doesn’t, it’s a major issue that results in a large number of civilian casualties.
Or, when striking an individual low-ranking terrorist, if the IDF expects mass casualties (usually it will bomb the operative’s home as he enters), it should bomb the operative in the street instead of bombing his home (that he is inside of) and killing entire families. 
    Regarding the hostages, this military strategy worked at first, but it’s hard to say now. Israel is looking for an unconditional surrender or annihilation of Hamas and a return of the hostages.
The “how” – which is what most consider when thinking about these wars –  is quite remarkable. If only a small number of attacks were executed a bit differently, Israel and the IDF would have a near-untarnished record in this war.