Israel has decided to continue assassinating suspected Palestinian fighters in Gaza. The practice has been condemned by human rights groups not only because Israel is basically executing people without trial, but because the process also puts innocent Palestinian civilians in the line of fire. Israeli officials say the extrajudicial killings are necessary to stop unguided rocket attacks.

Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, the national infrastructure minister, said; “It was decided there will be more liquidation fire against terrorists and I think this will limit the damage [on Israel from the rocket attacks].” Ben-Eliezer is talking mostly about the damage done to buildings in Israel, not the loss of life caused. Though 1,025 unguided rockets were fired last year alone, these attacks have only killed a total of 10 people since 2001. Still, the fear of impotent rocket attacks is constantly used by the Israeli government to justify a policy of collective punishment towards all of Palestine.

Israel’s security cabinet has falsely framed the situation as being a decision between just two options: the continuation of extrajudicial killings or that of a full-scale ground offensive. Obviously, the former is preferred to the latter, though in reality neither is at all necessary. Eli Yishai, the trade minister and a member of the security cabinet, explained how the continuation of exterminating an occupied people and the bulldozing of their houses can bring order. “We should concentrate on bringing order through targeted killings, the destruction of infrastructure, and of military headquarters,” he said.

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