I see so many pieces of this in part because I grew up with a political scientist, and now I’ve been formally trained to do political analysis.

Militant Palestinians are running the government in Gaza. They write about Jihad and death being their goal, and they make no effort whatsoever to protect their citizens. Further their training some civilians to become soldiers as children. So that’s the reason why you sometimes hear about children being in prison in Israel, because they literally raised children to die for their country and by 16, 17, they’re still children, but they’re using automatic rifles. If that doesn’t scare you, it should.

I have Palestinian friends who came to America to avoid dealing with their children becoming soldiers. I have others that I have met through living in the Washington DC or area and some of them working in the Diplomatic fields. None of them like Hamas.

As a Jew obviously I don't like Hamas either but I especially don't like them in my general sense of fairness, since I've heard that the leaders of Hamas are billionaires while their people suffer. There are 200 miles of tunnels beneath the surface of Gaza, and all kinds of supplies hoarded up, but the people of Gaza have to ask the UN and Israel for help to have water and food. And there's little doubt that their general standard of living is low even though there are billions coming into the country every month in Aid. And that makes me sad for them because I want them to have every opportunity. I have another friend who is Egyptian who used to live in Gaza before it was handed over. She loved it there with the greenhouses and the beautiful Mediterranean beaches. She lived modestly but she said it was very pleasant and there were many people there who lived much better.

Further the reason why refugees are not being allowed in neighboring countries is because militant Palestinians have disrupted other governments including in Jordan where some people say the king may have even been killed, but definitely the prime minister was. In Kuwait, the militant Palestinians supported and assisted Iraqis in invading the country. Within a couple of months of that situation being resolved, they were expelled from Kuwait. Lebanon have had similar issues. Egypt, of course, deals with them regularly and has refused to open the border to them rather emphatically. They also deal with the tunnels there too as being the ones who manage their semi open border.
So the casualties are in part High in Gaza because they are literally not letting people leave blast areas, and they are intentionally not moving them out of the way. I have never seen a country do the things Israel has done, and I’ve seen video of the radio frequencies and I’ve seen multiple pictures and video of the letter bombs that are sent down to tell people where blast points are so they can leave, and I know that there are other activities that they do to try to move people out. I also know that neither government is entirely truthful about what’s happening, so we must tread lightly.
Government-wise on the Israeli side they need to find some way to have a non-enemy provide security between the two States because right now Gaza has proven that it has never kept its peace agreements regarding weapons or ceasefires for that matter. The frustrations from that resulting in death and injuries and just everyday fear make it harder and harder for the IDF to behave in a fair way. A defensive force is generally meant to be an army they’re not meant to be police to a hostile environment, and that leads to injuries and death for the Palestinians, and it shouldn’t. Further, Israel’s hard right government may have been a good idea 30 years ago, but I’m fairly certain they need people with more fluid brains and hands now. They need to find more creative ways to enhance security without making it overly unpleasant for Palestinians. They also need to get settlers out even if they need to get help from another country to do it. The settler movement is very damaging. How can even the smallest respect the offered and accepted if agreements aren’t kept on both sides?
I also see that an attempt to disconnect a secret army is not easy at all, and it’s obviously costing lives, and everybody is freaked out over it. It seems like they’re counting each and every life almost as if it’s from the US. There are many more wars going on around the world, but we’re not picking the more powerful side and going I’m going to count each and every death against that country. It’s only happening for Israel. We have to talk about why we’re doing that. Israel did not start the war, and they would very, very happily stop it if Hamas stopped firing and stopped the raids, but they have been continuing since October 7th. Even if the Israeli government wanted to continue, they would probably have to stop if Hamas stopped.

I’ve heard them say on the news almost immediately that the Israelis were acting towards Revenge, but I don’t really believe it. Most people I know associated with Israel are telling me that the goals are to disarm Hamas and to put Gaza in a position to choose a political government. Many people there that I know are upset and grieving, and also fighting, but they’re not drowning in anger. They just want to make the problem stop. Sorry, I know this is long, but it seems so many people have no idea of the Palestinian history on their own. Nor do they understand the difficulties of trying to disable Hamas. They think it’s like every other war where they can send some special forces here in one place and bomb a few obvious military bases and be done. It’s not that simple, and from what I hear, a fair portion of the civilian deaths are not actually civilians, just Hamas in plain clothes. Generally speaking, only their higher up people and their Elite Force actually wear uniforms. The rest generally don’t.