I would agree that the claim, true or not, shouldn’t be used to justify a scorched earth policy in Gaza, because that is not justifiable, ever. I’d also say that the state of the murdered babies necks isn’t particularly relevant in whether Israel is justified in engaging in any military response at all.

This is really a situation where cool heads need to prevail, and I am of course concerned given Israel’s rhetoric so far. A military response to thoroughly root out Hamas is justifiable, I would say, and that will tragically come with civilian casualties. Indiscriminate killing of all civilians would never be justified, but we’ve only seen that from one side. That’s not to say that the IDF couldn’t be doing more to protect civilians, but there is a very large difference between not doing as much as you can to reduce collateral damage and intentionally massacring civilians. If that were the Israeli objective, it would be done by now.