A former radical from Egypt who now opposes radical Islam told Newsmax TV on Tuesday that Hamas, not Israel, is at fault for the mounting and "unavoidable" civilian death toll among Palestinians in Gaza.

"Like trying to remove cancer, sometimes you have to get some of the normal flesh around it," Tawfik Hamid, now an author and Virginia-based policy analyst, told "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner.

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As the body count among Palestinian non-combatants — including women, children and families — climbs into the hundreds, international pressure is rising on Israel to halt its air- and ground-based offensive against Hamas.

"[Y]ou have to blame Hamas first for these casualties, because Israel actually is trying to be very precise in its operations," said Hamid, author of "Inside Jihad" and chair for the Study of Islamic Radicalism at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.

Meanwhile, said Hamid, "Hamas members hide among civilians, put their weapons inside civilian places, and then they go blame Israel" when Palestinian civlians are killed.

Militants have fired more than 1,000 rockets into Israel over the last two weeks from Hamas-controlled territory in the densely populated Gaza Strip.

Hamid said that Israel, under the circumstances, has to keep fighting to eradicate Hamas as a military threat, likening an early cease-fire to a "half-dose of antibiotic."

"Peaceful solutions can happen when evildoers are defeated," said Hamid.

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