SIR – At the risk of repeating myself, I should explain in response to Cathy Mackay (Letters, November 24) that the shelling of military targets, albeit that most were sited in strictly civilian structures, including mosques, hospitals and schools, were always preceded by warnings from Israel that this or that building was going to be targeted encouraging civilians to leave.

However, Hamas forbade them to leave because Hamas did not want anyone to appear to obey Israeli orders.

Furthermore, there was a very easy way to stop Israeli shelling by ceasing lobbing rockets indiscriminately into civilian targets in Israel.

Rudi Leavor, Heaton Park Drive, Bradford