The best numbers I can find state that in the current Israeli attack on Gaza, around 850 Palestinians have died and over 3,000 have been wounded (CNN). It’s estimated that 30 to 40% of the dead are women or children. From the rocket attacks that Hamas is still launching into Israel, 3 Israeli citizens have been killed since the conflict started. 

Yep. That’s three. Three Israeli citizens and ten Israeli soldiers. Compare that with four UN aid workers and eight hundred and fifty Palestinians. 

The best estimates I’ve found for Qassam rocket attacks state that in the 7 years before this latest outbreak, 15 Israeli citizens have been killed (Wikipedia). Hamas has launched thousands of rockets, but even the Israeli Defense Force stated that the rockets were “more a psychological than a physical threat.”

The Gaza strip is one of the most densely populated areas on earth. It is not possible to launch a military operation on the scale that Israel has done without “collateral damage” on the scale that can easily be seen on our TV screens every night. That hundreds of Palestinians would die was well known. 

Do the sufferings of Palestinians not matter? The death of 18 Israelis is certainly a tragedy, but does it justify the death of 850 Palestinians? That is the moral question: does the death of 18 innocent Israeli citizens justify a military action that is killing hundreds of innocent Palestinians?