What proportion of the population
are/were combatants?
Probably unusually high (being under siege conditions, even before September), but we're still not talking a Klingon society here. Which causes problems for Israel as unless they are
very accurate in their attacks, they're probably killing non-combatants (and certainly inconveniencing large numbers) far more than they're doing significant combatant 'neutralising'.
This is, by its very nature, an assymetric 'war'. Israel is in an unenviable[1] position in which having been clearly wronged by a terrorist attack[2] they then promptly lost most of the international sympathy they had gained from that event (and lost the opportunity to turn that into antipathy-reduction in other quarter) in a far shorter time than the War On Terror became a bit of a polluted cause.
I think I'm repeating myself in that I really don't know
how it should have responded to the recently sparking act of incursion by Hamas, but 'not like this' seems clear enough. And the current operation isn't really being made on behalf of the nation (or the jews in the nation, or especially the worldwide jews as a while) but as a strongarm tactic by the particularly xenophobic leadership. (Phobic as either 'fear'
or 'hate', but in both cases beyond reasonable and understandable rationality, even taking into account the provably equally judaophobic opponents.)
No, it should not be "turn the other cheek", but following Exodus 21:23-25 as just the starting point is
equally unacceptable.
[1] Or should be, but I bet some are looking on in envy, wondering how they could do the same in their own sphere of territory.
[2] Albeit that it was the latest wrong in a string of pushing and shoving between the various viewpoints as to how many such wrongs could be deemed (eventually) to be 'right'.