It's how wars are fought nowadays...especially nowadays.
Control information, control people.
To win a war you NEED to control the hearts and minds of the people.
The world is so densely populated now, it's almost impossible to kill/capture enough fighters from one side to force a surrender. That's not even factoring in the terrorism aspect that isn't being conducted by any legitimate state.
I saw a comparison that if you take the ~1200 killed in that one attackoin Israel and compare to the US's population, it would be like killing 40,800 here.
Israel has about 9.5 million residents. US has over 326 million, or 34 times their number.
Our 9/11 killed almost 3,000, not counting the wars.
This past weekend was Israel's 9/11.
The US is in no position to ask Israel to show restraint in their response, not after the 2 decades we spent trying to make sure terrorists can't hit us like they did ever again.