Terror attacks that fanned the flames of conflict in Gaza

i AM sorry that Geoffrey Bryant didn’t understand the point of my use of the phrase “trying to live peacefully” in Israel (The Yorkshire Post, July 29).

Extremist Muslims have never ceased to attack Israel, using their own people as suicide bombers or by firing thousands of rockets. Israel has never been an aggressive nation unless driven to it by extreme aggression from elsewhere.

Hamas has been declared a terrorist organisation – how can one be accused of aggression when being attacked by terrorists?

From: Peter Asquith-Cowen, Anlaby, near Beverley.

IT is a terrible indictment of our modern times that we are prepared to use religion to inflict such barbarous carnage on those we don’t like, or disagree with, at a time when we in the West are talking about toleration, respect and acceptance.

US Secretary of State John Kerry deserves a medal if he can get these warring factions to lay down their arms and start re-building their devastated countries. Meanwhile, even worse atrocities are being perpetrated in Syria and Iraq and the West seems impotent to prevent this disaster from worsening. What will be the end, I wonder?

From: A Drapkin, Leeds.

ACCORDING to statements by Hamas, every Israeli man, woman and child is a legitimate target. This is because the conflict is between Jews and Islam. The world naturally is upset at the deaths of civilians in Gaza, but who is it that compels women and children to protect its ammunition dumps and rocket launchers?

From: MG Burbage, Rothwell.

AT the moment Israel is busy fighting Hamas over rockets being directed into Israel from Gaza. What a waste of time and cost with fatalities and injuries to the local population. It is impossible for Hamas to defeat Israel. The simplest solution is for Hamas to cease sending rockets into Israel. If the Hamas rockets cease, there is every possibility that after a month or so there will be peace. After all, what good comes out of wars?

From: Andrew Mercer, Guiseley.

MORE innocents slaughtered in Gaza. A peaceful resolution even more remote. Another crisis being made worse by Tony Blair. I’m just grateful he’s no longer PM of this country.