JOPLIN, Mo. — Members of the Joplin Jewish community react to the war between Israel and Hamas.

William Fleischaker is a member of the Joplin United Hebrew Congregation. He said the Israeli Government’s failure to come up with a solution to the Palestinian problem has created an environment of hate.

And he said Hamas is using that as an excuse to attack Israel. He said Hamas use their own people as human shields.

“They put their rocket launchers in school yards and in hospital grounds so that if Israel retaliates and tries to stop the rocket attacks, there’s no way to avoid civilian casualties,” said Fleischaker.

He said Hamas is not only an enemy of Israel, but an enemy to Palestinians as well.