Gareth Smith yet again posts two anti-Israel letters (3 and 17 August) and his wild statements can be easily disproven by looking at the facts. He calls the latest tragic hostilities that lasted three days a ‘killing spree in Gaza’ by Israel, the facts are clearly very different.
Israel had strong intel that Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) were imminently launching yet another mass casualty terrorist attack in Israel. Since March 2022 Israel has suffered seven deadly terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and other Israeli military targets, resulting in 19 civilian deaths and 44 wounded. More were attempted by PIJ but were stopped by Israeli forces before they were carried out. So Israel launched pre-emptive precision strikes, not against HAMAS, not against Palestinian civilians, but directly against PIJ weapons and infrastructure, and attempted to kill senior PIJ commanders who are responsible for masterminding terrorist atrocities.
Even HAMAS admitted that the strikes were incredibly accurate.
As always, the cowards in the PIJ hid said weapons and infrastructure inside civilian apartment blocks and other civilian infrastructure, and tragically between 31 and 44 Palestinians were killed, including both PIJ fighters and civilians. Every death is an absolute tragedy, and Israel goes to incredible lengths to protect Palestinian civilians, resulting in many missions being cancelled if the risk of Palestinian civilian deaths is high. PIJ on the other hand fired over 1,000 powerful and deadly missiles into Israeli civilian areas, approximately 200 of these missiles fell short into Gaza and killed 15 Palestinians.
Iran pays millions of dollars to PIJ for every successful terrorist attack, so Israel had no choice but to take action. Don’t take my opinion. Research through factual sites and you will see that all I have stated is true. Both Palestinians and Israelis are beautiful people. Peace now, peace is the only solution.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
