"If Israel wanted to kill civilians, they'd all be dead"
Recurring apologetic across social media and some official commentary.
What it signals
Capability-as-alibi: the argument that not committing total extermination proves benign intent. By this logic no army in history has ever targeted civilians while any survived. It quietly concedes the capability while claiming the restraint as virtue.
How to answer
Name the standard being smuggled in: 'The measure of an army is not that it left survivors.' Then return to case-by-case evidence — specific strikes, specific findings — where law actually lives.