We Stand With Israel

The flag of Israel was projected onto 10 Downing Street this evening as the Prime Minister proclaimed, "We stand with Israel."

It is difficult to find the words to address how shocking the events in Israel this weekend are. 

But it is clear that from early on Saturday morning, Hamas fired thousands of rockets at towns and cities in Israel, while Hamas terrorists from Gaza have invaded Israel and attacked both military and civilian targets, gunning down scores if not hundreds of unarmed men, women and children in their homes, and dragging about a hundred other people, many of them women and children, back to Gaza as hostages.

There appears to be little doubt of the accuracy of reports of civilians being massacred and taken hostage, since the Hamas terrorists themselves have posted harrowing images of dead bodies and of hostages including children: there are also accounts of Jewish women being raped.

The Israeli military says at least 700 people have died in the Hamas attacks including both those killed by air attacks and those murdered on the ground, and that  more than 2,000 were injured.

Rescuers say they've found more than 250 bodies at the site of an Israeli music festival attacked by Hamas militants in an unprecedented assault on Saturday.

Retaliatory Israeli air strikes have killed at least 413 people in the Gaza Strip, with 2,300 wounded, according to the latest update from Palestinian officials.

It is worth pointing out a key difference between the civilian deaths on the two sides. Hamas gunmen and missiles have quite clearly been deliberately been killing Israeli civilians, literally gunning down women and children in their homes. Israel can, by contrast, credibly argue that they are only trying to target Hamas military targets, but the casualties include innocent Palestinian civilians because Hamas deliberately launches weapons from civilian areas, both to use civilians as cover and so that their deaths from return fire can be used as a propaganda weapon.

Most Jewish people and most Palestinians only want to live in peace. The barbaric attacks by Hamas this weekend will lead only to bloodshed and carnage for Jews and Palestinians alike. As several people have said to me or posted this weekend, "This will not end well."