Regarding Innocents

There's a discussion of innocents in one of the below posts. I noticed this CNN article, Israel has bombed one of the leaders of PIJ and killed him, along with several innocents who were with him, including children.

Is this justified? Yes. Not only is it justified, but in moral terms, it is the responsibility of those who hide behind "innocents" and walk among them, while waging war who bear the responsibility. Therefore, it is Israel who bears responsibility for killing the PIJ leader, but it is him, who bears the responsibility for the collateral damage.

We in the West pay a lot of lip service to this premise and most everyone agrees in principle, yet questions it when it comes to the real life situation. This is a good sign, reflective of our compassion and mercy. But it can also be destructive in that if we hedge our bets and start to believe the sophistry that we are somehow responsible for the innocent deaths, it merely encourages those who are actually responsible, to continue to use these tactics and to find ways to exploit it more to their advantage.