Mrs Kendall’s letter (September 4) states that recent Israeli actions in Gaza were “ruthless” and “surely a war crime”. Taking TV coverage at face value I can understand how some people are thinking this way.

Her letter mixes up Gaza and the so-called West Bank – “the Palestinians only want their land back and the blockade lifted”. In 2005 Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza and forcibly evicted thousands of its own people from Gaza back to Israel. This was very controversial in Israel at the time and was a gamble for peace. The result ? A year later the Palestinians voted in Hamas, a terrorist organisation calling for the destruction of the state of Israel instead of Fatah. So much for the strategy of Israel giving up land for peace. As for the blockade of Gaza, this is necessary to stop Iran from shipping rockets to Gaza. Many seizures of rockets have been reported.

Hamas has been firing thousands of rockets into Israel for many years. No state can tolerate this from a neighbour. Israel’s patience was tested to the limit but in the end it had to act. The Israel Defense Force (IDF) goes to great lengths to minimise civilian casualties with leaflet drops, telephone calls and ‘roof knocks’. Hamas, in contrast, is trying to kill civilians with its rockets. Also it locates its launch sites within the most densely populated parts of Gaza and deliberately puts people in harm’s way – both from rockets misfiring and Israeli retaliatory strikes.

I would suggest that there can be no lasting resolution of the Israel– Palestinian issue until the Palestinians recognise the right of the Jewish State of Israel to exist – as determined under International law by the San Remo conference of 1920.

J Seymour, Wiltshire.