JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli President Shimon Peres said Tuesday that the killing of Palestinian civilians by air raids on Gaza presents a moral dilemma, but argued there is scant alternative as long as the Islamic militants who rule the strip refuse to stop sustained rocket fire against Israel.

“There is a moral problem, but I don’t have a moral answer to it,” the 1994 Nobel Peace laureate told The Associated Press. “If they are shooting at us, and don’t let our mothers and their children … have a full night’s sleep, what can we do?”