At the beginning of this month the United Nations released a report saying that the Gaza Strip, an area that is part of Palestine, could be completely uninhabitable by 2020. This is of huge concern to the nearly 2 million people that call the Gaza Strip home. The causes of the current situation are a now eight year long Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the region, as well as ongoing military operations being carried out by Israel. With this new report it is becoming ever more apparent that Israel is not handling the current situation in Gaza responsibly, and their needs to be some changes.

The reason behind Israel’s most recent operation in The Gaza Strip, Operation Protective Edge (OPE), was in response to attacks on Israel organized by Hamas. Hamas is a political party in the region that is considered a terrorist group by many of the world’s superpowers; including the United States and Canada. OPE was launched in order to destroy Hamas’s ability to launch attacks on Israel.

However, it also managed to kill large amounts of civilians. The operation was responsible for roughly 2,200 Palestinian deaths, 70% of those being civilians. UNICEF reports that roughly 300 of these civilians were children. According to the BBC just under 500,000 were left living in emergency centers or with relatives, 17,200 homes were destroyed or severely damaged by Israeli attacks, and just under 250 schools were damaged or destroyed. During 2012 Israel launched Operation Pillar of Defense, an air strike operation in the Gaza Strip, and almost half of the 167 Palestinians killed were civilians. During both operations, there were 77 Israeli deaths.

I’m stating all of these facts to highlight some important issues with the way Israel is handling the tensions in The Gaza Strip. Israeli military tactics are not effective at avoiding civilian casualties. This means that the Israeli government is punishing the citizens of The Gaza Strip simply because Hamas controls the area. Even children, who could not possibly have anything to do with the attacks launched on Israel, are not safe from the Israeli attacks.

Let me be very clear: I understand that both the Palestinians and Israelis have been victims of horrible attacks and atrocities. However, past violence is not justification for the killings of innocents on either side.

The other major reason behind the degradation of the Gaza Strip is a now eight year long blockade of the region enforced by Israel and Egypt, though Egypt has been less strict with their enforcement. The blockade was launched by Israel in response to the Hamas takeover of the region in 2007. Its objectives were to prevent weapons entering the region, as well as to curb Hamas attacks.

The blockade has been unable to accomplish these goals; if it had Israel would not have needed to launch either of the two operations mentioned previously. What it has succeeded in doing is starving the people of the Gaza Strip. It has hindered any sort of economic growth in the region, and has only increased anti-Israeli sentiment.

So, two attacks and an eight year blockade later, where are we? We are left with thousands of dead Palestinians, thousands of destroyed homes, and Hamas still able to function. Israel has not only failed to achieve its goals, but they have only made the wake of devastation in the region even larger. If any solution is going to be reached in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Israel must stop using unnecessary force. The lives of two million people depend on it.