The Moral Imperative to Resist?

"Abdel Minaim Hasan, 37, knelt, weeping, next to the body of his eldest daughter, Lina, 11, who was wrapped in a Hamas flag. “From now on I am Hamas!” he cried. “I choose resistance!” But then he cursed Arab nations for ignoring the plight of the Gazans. “The Arabs are doing nothing to protect us!” he shouted." From New York Times article Grief and Rage at Gaza School.

There is much popular thinking that punishing civilian populations can lead them to rise up and overthrow their governments. That was (some of) the logic behind the Iraq sanctions during the Clinton years, the Cuban sanctions, and then the sanctions against Gaza. Now, it constitutes some (though by no means most) of the logic behind the airstrikes against Gaza - civilians will inevitably be killed by such attacks, but the Israelis want Gazans to know that Hamas is the party truly responsible for those deaths.

Aside from the arrogance of such an attitude (if your leaders were more to our liking you wouldn't be suffering), is their a moral imperative to resist, perhaps with force, such an action? Abdel vowed that he was now with Hamas. Fatah is negotiating with Israel, trying (fruitlessly so far) to gain sigficant progress in a peace process and the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state. But this man's daughter has been killed - arguably murdered, as she was in school - by an Israeli strike. Why negotiate with those responsible? If they can kill with impunity, is resistance - rather than accomodation - the moral imperative?

Conversely, would the same imperative exist for those in Sderot?