We have all seen the pictures of the horrible price the Palestinian people are paying because the terrorist army of Hamas seized power in Gaza in a bloody coup against not Israelis, but against their fellow Palestinians. They have turned civilian communities into terrorist enclaves which Israel can either ignore and let its own civilians be killed, or take action against, while doing our best to limit injury to Palestinian civilians, behind whom Hamas has hidden with such awful cynicism, and whose deaths they celebrate, exploit and wear as a mantle of victimhood, while perpetrating war crimes against both our peoples.  

See these pictures from inside civilian neighborhoods in Gaza.

These are entrance points to terrorist tunnels, hidden inside civilian homes. Those tunnels lead beneath the internationally recognized border of Israel in order to enable Hamas terrorists to attack Israeli civilian communities, murder, maim, capture and hold hostage Israeli men, women and children. In order to prevent those acts of terror against purely civilian targets, Israel had no choice but to go into Gaza and engage in heavy, house to house fighting, room to room fighting, in order to find and destroy these homicide tunnels.

Iron dome can protect Israel from rockets. Tragically, nothing but boots on the ground, in treacherous urban fighting, can take out the tunnels. Israel has accepted cease-fire after cease-fire. Hamas has rejected cease-fire after cease-fire and used them, instead, to launch more rockets and terrorist tunnel attacks against us . No country in the world would do anything less than Israel is doing now to safeguard our civilians. Nor has any country done anything more to protect the innocent civilians, trapped in an enemy entity, bent on it's destruction.

You've seen the pictures of the horror and heard people say, "Look at the disparity of casualties between Israel and the Palestinians."

1. We are not at war with the Palestinians who suffer even more than we do from Hamas's terrorist regime.

2. These pictures show the cause of the horror, the turning of civilian communities into terrorist enclaves of rocket launchings and homicide tunnels aimed  against Israeli civilian communities. 

They also show why more Israelis haven't been killed despite Hamas's ceaseless efforts to do just that. The reason is the Israel Defense Forces who are fighting not for a caliphate, nor almond-eyed virgins in paradise, nor to perpetuate the occupation of Gaza which we unilaterally ended almost a decade ago, in the mistaken hope that it would "give peace a chance." The Israel Defense Forces are fighting for our homes and our families. The fight will continue until the threat of the terrorist tunnels has been dealt with, and Hamas's terrorist infrastructure has been degraded to a degree which will allow our citizens to live the same peaceful life to which every civilized nation aspires.

Our neighbors are neither Swiss nor Dutch, Canadians nor Swedes. There are no rewards for weakness where we live. Despite the best efforts of those who proudly announce their intention to annihilate us we answer back with neither bravado nor empty threats. Instead we say what our people have said for millennia in the face of each new Haman, Hitler or Hamas who has sought to destroy us.

Am Yisrael Chai! The People of Israel live!

Only By the Grace of a Merciful G-d, and the strength and selfless courage of the IDF will we continue to do so. 

Dan Gordon is a captain if the Israel Defense Forces (Res)