The images and videos flooding social media over the last few days demonstrate a level of depravity incomprehensible to most of humankind. Even in war, there are rules and boundaries that are not crossed. Combatants should stay focused on the overall mission while also retaining humanity, not allowing the overall objective to be deterred by uncontrolled hate or allowing soldiers of war to turn into utter savages.

However, though unimaginable to most people, there are people who do not have such a line in the sand — at all. It’s a line that does not exist for terrorist groups like Hamas. Its jihadists have clearly demonstrated that there is no limit to what they will do to those they hate. There is also no level of reasoning that can be discussed to get them to see that there are certain behaviors and actions that should not exist beyond the animalistic survival tactics of hyenas — which can be excused for tearing into the flesh of their helpless prey and leaving their bloodied corpses behind due to being wild, unsophisticated animals.

The degree of hate that it takes for a human being to act in a way that goes beyond the barbarity of a non-domesticated animal is not something that happens naturally. It is hostility that is sewn into the heart of a person from the time they are born and repeatedly ingrained in everything they have access to throughout their childhood and into adulthood. It is meant to raise an individual to view a particular group as something lower than animals and to normalize the shedding of their own blood should it become necessary to achieve the greater goal of wiping out that other group of people.

There is no deprogramming for this mindset, and there is no level of threat from the other side that would deter them from their purpose.

So what are the citizens of Israel supposed to do when the objective of this hate isn’t just to weaken or control them but to exterminate them?

The most common knowledge of deep-seated Jew hatred is, of course, associated with Nazi Germany. Yet the malice toward these people has existed for far longer amongst every Arab population that surrounds Israel. There are some who have wanted nothing more than to decimate the area and vaporize every Jew existing within it since the reestablishment of its borders.

After Britain pulled its protection from the Jewish state in 1948, it took one day for the neighboring areas of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Transjordan, and Egypt to unleash the full force of their respective militaries against the Israelis. Since then, the attacks have been steady, and the Israeli people have come to expect that, every few years, at least one of their hostile neighbors will engage in a conflict, and lives will be lost.

However, the viciousness of this most recent invasion carried a new level of aggression and soulnessness. Rocket fire and distant bombings were not enough for this new wave of terrorists. Their intent was to make this attack against Israel personal. They gleaned joy from looking into the eyes of terrified young women as they assaulted their bodies, snuffed out their lives, and tossed them to the side like pieces of garbage.

On numerous occasions, they took the lives of their victims using slow, inhumane methods. While most carried guns, and bullets would suffice if needed, knives, axes, and even the garden tools owned by the residents they had cornered were used. The goal was to prolong their suffering while their horrified family members either watched in shock or lay in death beside them.

Reports of brutalized toddlers and dismembered babies, burned women and children, and entire families left massacred in their once-peaceful homes have left the world in utter disbelief.

Whereas media coverage often softens or hides the unpalatable actions of evil people, Hamas did not want the protection of the anti-Semitic leftists of the world to cover for them. In fact, many of them took the phones of their hostages and live-streamed their torture and death on their own social media accounts for all eyes to see, hoping to extend the pain to their Jewish relatives in other places.

They wanted their cruelty to be shared, unfiltered and uncensored.

Among the many false ideas surrounding the root cause of this attack, one of the most common misconceptions is that this is a war over territory; that the Palestinian people just want the land that they feel the Jewish people never had the right to inhabit in the first place.

But this is not a conflict over land. This is an inbred, ongoing war on a religion — and wars on religion do not stay within a set of borders, and they do not respect specific geographical areas.

The objective of this group, and those who share this animosity toward the Jews, is to annihilate the entire body of people from everywhere on the planet.

Which is why there can be no sit-down discussions about peace. It has been tried, and Hamas leaders, acting as the official governing body of Gaza, have made it clear that there is no amount of oil, land, or offerings that will dissuade them from their belief that Jewish people are a cancer that needs to be terminated.

As Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, and other Islamist groups have made clear, the only satisfactory outcome will be total extinction of the Jewish people and, ultimately, anyone who praises a God other than Allah.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made something clear in his response to this attack: “Hamas will pay an unprecedented price. The enemy will receive a response they’ve never known before.”

It has come down to the undeniable truth — it’s either the Jews and their supporters, or the terrorists and theirs.

This is a conflict that has far surpassed the possibility of finding middle ground.