Thanks for your response.
To your question. No I cannot think how anyone would or could justify such actions and we as a people should be looking for a way, any way of stopping that. My, maybe stupid and possibly ignorant, solution is to try and unpick the current immediate problem which I think releasing the hostages is part of.
Unfortunately, as all too many posters on here are tirelessly pointing out this war does go back decades, centuries even and if we are going to forever tie everything or any possible solution back to the very beginning them I'm afraid we call all look forward to continuous ongoing slaughter and killings on both sides - there is absolutely zero chance of resolving the problem, hence why I think we should think the people who are suffering today as opposed to looking back and finger pointing (both sides) - it achieves very little if not nothing as has been proven over the years.
I, unlike many others on here, do not have a masters degree in middle east battles and conflict resolution, but I still have an opinion which tends to focus on the here and now and the people who are suffering today, people like the starving Palestinians and the captured hostages.
EDIT
@stonerblue . The answer to your final question
"Do you think the actions of Israel and the continued slaughter and starvation of civilians and the avowed intent to wipe the Paletinians off the face of the earth since October are justified?
... is NO but that could easily be rewritten as...
Do you think the actions of Palestine and the continued attacks on civilians and the avowed intent to wipe the Jews off the face of the earth for the last few decades are equally justified?
I do hope this doesn't offend anyone.