SIR – Cathy MacKay (T&A, August 25) tells us “one cannot condone the synagogue murders” (meaning the murders of four rabbis in a Jerusalem synagogue, last week); then she says “I can certainly understand why someone would do such a thing”.

Those two statements cannot both be true. I think I know which one truly expresses Ms MacKay’s sentiments, given the content of the rest of her letter, which implies that the deaths in Gaza, earlier this year, were under-reported by the press.

Really? I need not go into detail, yet again, about how many of those deaths of innocents in Gaza were deliberately provoked by Hamas (and, in some cases, were “staged”).

But the evidence mounts, week by week, that this was the case. Israel, the only country in the world which is condemned for defending itself.

A Michael Murphy, Woodcot Avenue, Baildon