On what do you base your statement that Israel is "killing multitudes of civilians just to get to one or two Hamas fighters?"

Read my post again. I did not say they have done that. I said they should not do that.

Gathering facts in this war is, as in most wars, difficult at best. The WHO has claimed that the number of Gazans killed in the fighting as reported by Hamas is likely to be a reasonable estimate. Currently that figure stands at more than 37,000. I was going to try to give some breakdown of that total into civilian and combatants, but the figures are so unreliable as to be useless. The best that can be said is that civilian deaths are a material portion of the total.

My concern is more about what may be coming. At the moment, most of the population of Gaza has been displaced. And because of the closure of most border crossings, food and water are in short supply. If that is not remedied, starvation cases will rise and could easily surpass the losses from direct military action.

The small bit of good news on that front is that there may be the opportunity to bring in more supplies in the very near future. The military has made some noises about pausing the fighting for part of each day to allow humanitarian aid to move about in the country. Of course, this is infuriating Netanyahu. We’ll have to see how this eventually plays out.

I see little evidence that Netanyahu has any regard for civilian lives in Gaza. Whether his view or calmer heads in Israel will prevail remains to be seen.

—Peter