Where is line between retaliation, annihilation

For months, after the unprecedented surprise attack by Hamas on innocent Israelis and the inhumane treatment of the hostages they seized, I fully supported Israel's retaliation, both against Hamas and their allies, within and outside Israel. Hamas' stated goal, along with Hezbollah and the Houthis, of eliminating Israel as a nation, invited an immediate, all-out response by the Israeli military.

However, as the months have passed and the body count has mounted by the thousands, as the cities and villages in Gaza have been reduced to rubble, as innocent women and children have been killed simply trying to get enough food to avoid starvation, I've wondered where the line is between retaliation and annihilation.

We have been told that the Israeli military, with its elite training and advanced technology, was capable of strategic, surgical precision when it came to airstrikes, but time and again women and children are killed in what Netanyahu and his military leaders call “tragic mistakes that will be thoroughly investigated.”

It's a “tragic mistake” when Red Cross vehicles are blown up; when women and children are killed while rushing to try to get a pail of soup; when men, women, children, doctors, nurses, reporters and other civilians are killed when another hospital is leveled. It appears that either Netanyahu and his military leaders are lying or their military is not quite as elite as we were led to believe.

Israel has a right to defend itself. There is no question about that. But what is Netanyahu's end goal here, and when does the killing stop? Many innocent Israelis died on Oct. 7, and the desire for revenge is normal. But how many more Palestinians have to die to satisfy that desire? Will there ever be enough?

Tom Dillivan

Schaumburg