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Is proportionality in war absurd?
The latest update out of the Middle East, as of this writing, stated that Israeli forces have intensified their bombardment of the Gaza Strip as the war with Hamas rages on. This is now the deadliest conflict in Gaza for both sides. The Hamas-run Health Ministry claims at least 5,087 Palestinians have been killed and 15,270 have been wounded. Since the Oct. 7 surprise attack by Hamas, in which 222 individuals, including foreigners, were taken captive in Gaza, more than 1,400 Israelis have been killed.
Israeli critics declared the assault on Gaza a “disproportionate response” to Hamas’s attack. These critics assess “disproportion” by the number of dead bodies. Palestine has four times as many as Israel. For these critics, that disproportion constitutes a war crime.
Israeli supporters believe it is a grave error to draw a moral equivalence between Hamas, a terrorist group, and Israel’s Defense Force, which is tasked with defending a sovereign nation. Hamas entered Israel, slaughtered Israeli people, and then fled to Gaza, where Palestinian civilians were used as human shields. Any unintended consequences of an Israeli military response are the result of Hamas’s exploitation of human shields. As a result, Hamas, not Israel, is to blame for the disproportion of dead bodies.