Hamas has conceded that five of at least 17 Palestinians killed by Israeli live fire at a demonstration along the border with Gaza on March 30 were members of the organization. Israel insists that 10 or 12 of those killed were “terrorists.” Even if one accepts the Israeli version, that still leaves five unarmed civilians shot to death by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), with more likely to come. Gaza’s Hamas rulers have already declared that the bloodshed would not disrupt the events they dub the Great Return March, scheduled to run until May 15, when Palestinians mark Nakba Day, the “catastrophe” of Israel’s establishment in 1948.

Prior to the protest, IDF senior officers had told Haaretz that a high number of casualties was a “price we would be willing to pay to prevent a breach” of the border fence. Even after the clashes, the IDF continues to insist that it will not change its rules of engagement regarding Gaza protesters. Meanwhile, the Israeli government is unimpressed by the urgent UN Security Council session convened March 31 to discuss the deadly results and by the condemnations issued in world capitals.

While Gaza was burying its dead, Israeli news media were busy reporting on the masses celebrating the weeklong Passover holiday at the country’s parks and beaches. The few Israelis who questioned the need for live fire against civilians, such as Meretz Chair Tamar Zandberg and radio host Kobi Meidan, came under a different type of live fire by Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unleashed a barrage against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who dared condemn the killing of civilians in Gaza. The same Netanyahu had five years earlier apologized to the Turkish people for the killing of nine Turkish civilians who took part in a May 2010 humanitarian flotilla bound for Gaza. Netanyahu told Erdogan at the time that the tragic results of the incident, during which Israeli commandoes boarded the Mavi Marmara to block its arrival in Gaza, were unintentional and admitted that the Israeli investigation had uncovered several operational errors.

Were the tragic results of the Passover 2018 incident unintentional as well? Is the most sophisticated military in the Middle East — adept at locating and destroying nuclear facilities far from its borders — really unable to defend its borders without shooting civilians? Does a defense industry that rakes in billions of dollars from the export of nonlethal crowd dispersal equipment not make it available to the Israeli security forces? If it does, did the commanders in the field exhaust such riot control measures before ordering the snipers to fire? One such crowd management weapon is an infrasonic device that emits inaudible ear-piercing frequencies. Israel used it to disperse a 2011 demonstration by Palestinians in the West Bank without incurring casualties. A senior official described the device as “a highly effective nonlethal means that uses frequencies humans cannot bear for long, is very easy to operate and doesn’t cause long-term damage.”