There will inevitably be soldiers who violate their own army’s rules of engagement. It happened in Gaza last week when soldiers in the Israeli Defense Force encountered three young men bearing a white flag and calling out in Hebrew that they were civilians. They were shirtless, so they were not likely concealing weapons.

Nevertheless, an IDF soldier took them for terrorists, killing two, wounding the third. He retreated into a building and called for help. An officer warned the troops to hold their fire, but when the survivor emerged, he was shot dead, too. All three were Israelis who had been kidnapped by Hamas and held hostage. It is still unclear whether they had been released or had escaped, only to be killed by their own people.

When such things happen, the questions to be answered are: Why? What will be done? What are the lessons?

The Israeli people wait for answers. So does the world.

Inexcusably excessive violence

The IDF reminded its troops that they are “absolutely not” permitted to kill people who are surrendering, even if they are suspected Hamas terrorists. But nothing has been heard yet about punishment. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was “shocked” by the event, which “broke the whole nation’s heart.”

He is responsible, however, for the inexcusable climate of excessive violence that fostered it, which cannot be excused.

Israel’s reliance on heavy weaponry to demolish Gaza nearly block by block has now claimed an estimated 20,000 civilian lives, most of them said to be women and children. The IDF has consciously chosen that tactic, likely at Netanyahu’s direction, to minimize its own casualties. Urban combat at close range is notoriously hazardous.

Such relentless violence breeds a familiar mindset: Shoot first, ask questions later. Life is cheap.

For all that, Israel is no closer to liberating some 130 remaining hostages whom Hamas seized during a rampage of rape and murder on Oct. 7. Their rescue was the immediate object of this war, but the relentless bombing and shelling risks their lives, and those of their captors. Hamas remains unconquered. This humanitarian crisis is costing Israel support all over the world — Germany and Great Britain are now backing away — and in the U.S., the crisis is inflaming endemic antisemitism and endangering President Biden’s reelection.

Doubling down on violence

Netanyahu is doubling down on violence and in his intransigence against anything that would lead to a Palestinian state in the West Bank. Without that, and as long as Netanyahu is in power, Israel will never know peace.

“I’m proud that I prevented the establishment of a Palestinian state because everybody today understands what that Palestinian state could have been,” he said in an overt reference to Hamas. On the contrary, many others believe creation of a Palestinian state would have weakened Hamas. Instead, Netanyahu strengthened the terrorist organization.

An unpoliced cease-fire such as the U.N. General Assembly demanded would leave Hamas in place, able to attack again in its determination to eradicate Israel. For the safety and security of Israeli citizens, that’s an impossibility. The solution, as we wrote at the outset of this invasion, is an international force to police the belligerents and ensure that neither can attack the other. Netanyahu won’t accept that.

Other Israelis could be persuaded. Ehud Olmert, a former prime minister who headed the centrist, peace-minded Kadima Party, is halfway there. He wrote in the New York Times that once Israel achieves its objectives in Gaza, it should accept a NATO peacekeeping force under U.N. auspices. The Biden administration should follow up on that promptly.

Time is not Israel’s ally. Noting that Netanyahu is unwilling to do what’s necessary, Olmert said it leaves Israel “no choice but to get rid of this government.”

That’s the crux of the issue. Netanyahu’s ferocity is also clearly intended to make Israelis forgive and forget his towering responsibility for instigating it. It’s no secret that he was tolerating Hamas as a pretext against a Palestinian state in the West Bank.

Netanyahu is tanking

It has been reported that Netanyahu encouraged the Qatari government to continue subsidizing Hamas, that Israeli intelligence had the precise Hamas plan of attack long before Oct. 7 and discounted it, and that Israel’s Mossad had detected a web of foreign investments that Hamas controlled, but could not get the government to disrupt it. It was all shared with the U.S. during the Trump administration, with no consequences.

The good news from Israel is that Netanyahu’s support is tanking. A recent poll showed the opposition parties would win 70 seats in the 120-member Knesset if elections were held.

There’s a natural reluctance to change leaders in wartime. In Israel, however, that needs to be done soon if the tragedies are to come to an end.

To many people around the world, this season commemorates a biblical promise of goodwill and peace on earth. One doesn’t have to share their religion to wish desperately for that to come true in the land where it all began.

May 2024 be the year of peace.

The Sun Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Editorial Page Editor Steve Bousquet, Deputy Editorial Page Editor Dan Sweeney, editorial writer Martin Dyckman and Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson. Editorials are the opinion of the Board and written by one of its members or a designee. To contact us, email at .