Counter view: How Israel defends Gaza bombings?

Netanyahu said Israel is facing the equivalent of “all the cities of the United States from the East Coast to Colorado” coming under an unyielding barrage of rocket attacks.
“Sometimes you just have to fight against people who want to murder you,” he said on the sixth day of a military battering that has killed at least 160 Palestinians. More than 1,000 have been injured.
Netanyahu said Hamas terrorists brought the carnage upon the people of the Gaza Strip.
“The difference between us is that we’re using missile defense to protect our civilians, and they’re using their civilians to protect their missiles,” he said. “So naturally, they’re responsible for all the civilian deaths that occur accidentally. We’re sorry for any accidental civilian death, but it’s Hamas that bears complete responsibility.” Thousands fled their homes in a Gaza town on Sunday after Israel warned them to leave ahead of threatened attacks on the sixth day of an offensive that Palestinian officials said has killed at least 160 people. As Israel made its first, limited ground incursion into Gaza on Sunday morning, Netanyahu would not rule out a full ground assault. “We’ll use whatever means are necessary to defend our people, as would the United States or any other government,” he said. He brushed off international calls for a ceasefire, saying Israel’s goal was to hurt Hamas enough to achieve long-term security from its rockets, not just a temporary halt. “We need to have quiet restored to our people for a sustainable period of time, and not just for five minutes,” he said. Maen Rashid Areikat, the Palestinian envoy in Washington, backed a ceasefire and blamed Israel for targeting civilian buildings. “So far, Israel has carried out 1,300 air strikes against the Gaza Strip, more than 1,000 tons of explosives on the most densely populated area in the face of Earth,” he said. “Hospitals, mosques, schools were targeted. . . . Palestinian innocent civilians, children and women are paying the price for these massive Israeli air strikes.” But the West Bank-based Palestinian government has little control over Hamas in Gaza. “I don’t think Hamas is seeking confrontation with Israel,” Areikat said. Thousands of Palestinians were fleeing their homes in northern Gaza on Sunday and seeking refuge in UN shelters after warnings from the Israeli military that it planned to bomb the area. There have been no Israeli deaths during the recent conflict, largely because the Iron Dome, an antimissile defense system, has blocked more than 200 rockets launched by Hamas.