Jonathan Freedland tells us that “Israel’s war should be with Hamas alone, not the people of Gaza” (Warning: Benjamin Netanyahu is walking right into Hamas’s trap, 20 October). So how is it going to do that? How do you tell Hamas militants from non-combatants? How do you know Hamas military locations from civilian buildings?
The answer is that you can’t. A terrorist organisation is made up of civilians who wish to fight, and they can move between being combatants and civilians at will. The locations used by terrorists can change all the time. Thus a state waging a war against a terrorist organisation can never win using military means alone. This applies as much to Israel as to the British in Northern Ireland or the Americans and British in Afghanistan.
