Hezbollah’s concealment tactics are the real cause of civilian casualties

IN this era, unlike World War II, with GPS, laser, high-speed data transmission, unmanned aerial vehicles and high-resolution aircraft photo-recce, in addition to instant radio communications, it should be apparent that the civilian casualties in Lebanon are not the result of inaccurate Israeli weapons, carelessness or malice, but of the genocidal Hezbollah freely engaging in the war crimes of firing and concealing their weapons among civilians.

It is quite clear in international law that Israel is entitled to attack rocket-firing and storage areas, even if in civilian locations. Some of your correspondents show no recognition of these considerations. If the Israelis really wanted to cause civilian deaths, they have the capability to do so on a massive scale comparable to World War II when Hamburg saw 45,000 dead in one week in July 1943. Israel clearly does not.

In addition to ‘indiscriminate’ force, the issue of ‘proportionality’ has been mentioned by many people.

Even if you use the much higher recent Lebanese government claim of 925 dead in Lebanon (with no breakdown for the Hezbollah element which must be a significant part of any such total), that still equals one dead for every 9.3 Israeli air sorties, one dead for every five targets hit and one dead for every 14 Hezbollah-held rockets.

Is that either indiscriminate or disproportionate?

Tom Carew

Merton Drive

Ranelagh

Dublin 6.