Your correspondent Tim Siret (Oxford Mail, May 16) writing about the conflicts on Israel’s borders, seems to be looking at only one bit of that regional map.

For instance, we have also had news that Syrian tanks are shooting across the Lebanese border.

If we want to get a wider picture of civilians under fire from the military we could recall that 12 months ago that was happening in Bangkok, during the Thai Red Shirt revolt. This is only one instance in recent times.

As for calling the IDF ‘the Israeli Death Force’, it’s a happy coincidence of initials for opponents of Israel’s existence, but if you want to find soldiers who never kill anyone, civilian or otherwise, I suggest you stick to Boswell’s excellent toy department in Oxford. Joel Kaye, Purcell Road, Oxford