I will acknowledge that "valid" was the wrong word to convey my intended meaning. "Plausible" would be closer to my midnight intent.

And yet the US has used "military-age male" as an equivalent to "terrorist" for many, many years. And so has Israel. And innumerable other countries. Further, the very concept of a democratic process has been used to justify collective guilt for political abuse worldwide.

None of what I am saying is justifying or excusing terrorism. I am just pointing out that if Israel has nearly universal conscription, Hamas can make the argument that all adults are military targets. This is in contrast to the repeated insistence that all residents of the Gaza Strip are somehow responsible for Hamas gaining power. Never mind how half the population is under 18, and no one under 35 or so has even had a chance to vote, and when the last election occurred, Hamas didn't even have an absolute majority.

Do you remember the hospital tunnel story? That wasn't built by Hamas or a terrorist cell. That tunnel was built by Israel. How much more misinformation are we being given regarding terrorism? This kind of incident is like when cops plant drugs to justify traffic stops. How many "terrorists" are just men 17-34 or so?

Victim-blaming just perpetuates the cycle of violence and sparks more terrorist retaliation. You want to believe it is surgical strikes with accidental collateral damage, but is that really the case? People keep insisting when Israel drops leaflets warning of an upcoming strike, it's somehow humanitarianism and not terrorism.