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You listen to them and get off their land that you violently "persuaded" the British to give to you (see: the terrorism of the Irgun, who would eventually become the IDF) and the Americans to fund to the tune of trillions of dollars since 1948. That's the only real, ethical solution to this problem, fixing the cause. Anything else like a two-state solution is more practical now that the world has let 70 years pass by, but still not ethical. Of course Israel actually wants none of those since, as Netanyahu and several other cabinet members have admitted, they wanted to subsume Gaza (again) all along into its "greater Judaea" expansion project.

> I know this will be unpopular, but I'm just repeating what I've heard from the Israeli side [..]

It's war, this is the unfortunate truth and why we try to avoid war. Nobody really ends up winning in this.

> This doesn't justify killing civilians, but what do you do when civilians kill you?

Then point at which a civilian picks up a weapon to operate alongside Hamas, they have become Hamas and are no longer civilians.

> It's a nasty situation no matter which side you look at it from.

Yes. But a peaceful solution was almost impossible once Hamas performed their October 7 attack. The other day the UN members agreed to recognise Palestine as a state, and now the only thing left on Hamas' manifesto is the complete destruction of Israel [1]. I suspect Israel is not inclined to negotiate on that demand.

[1] https://www.dni.gov/nctc/terrorist_groups/hamas.html

Well, I guess it would be equally unpopular to the Israelis to hear that the global majority and the Palestinians consider Israel as oppressors and occupiers, and Hamas as freedom fighters. And as one man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist, it also brings focus into another interesting point - only certain western countries have designated Hamas as terrorists, while the rest of the world doesn't agree with that designation because, well Israel is a settler-occupier. Leave Hamas aside - is anyone here, whatever be your nationality, surprised that every Palestinian (including those in West Bank) is ready to fight (violently or non-violently) for their freedom, for their independence, when the Israelis are hell bent on oppressing them (by treating them as second class citizens), killing them or chasing them away from their homeland?

Remember, Israel has already colonised all of Palestine, for many decades now. They have the choice to integrate the Palestinians into their society, and make them equal citizens. Instead, they chose not to, because the religious fundamentalists right-wing in Israel, who have captured power of all Israeli institutions, don't want a secular state - they want Jewish state with a Jewish majority. That is why Israel chose to create an Apartheid society where the Palestinians are treated as worse than second-class citizens, to make them react violently and use that as an excuse to steal more of their land. That is why this genocide is happening under the Israeli-right - to turn the Palestinians into a small minority group that will not be a threat to a future "Jewish" state.