Any analogy breaks down. The Stern gang didn't worry about civilian casualties when they blew up the King David Hotel. We didn't worry about killing innocent women and children with the fire bombing of Tokyo and Hamburg and Dresden or using the A bomb against Hiroshima and Nagasaki. War is about winning any way you can. The winners apply the rules after the war is over.
Actually they did or they would not have called in a warning before they bombed British Military Headquarters in one wing of the KD Hotel.
If your argument is that even when there is concern for civilians an important war aim must trump that concern regarding civilians you are correct.
In the West today concern for tangential civilians- often terrorist supporters- stops necessary military action in its track.
Our enemy has no such compulsion. They consider us all, civilians and uniformed, as legitimate targets.
Being moral should not mean being suicidal. Losing to barbarism is immoral.
I agree with your premise, but just one point of information on the Stern gang. They did not blow up the King David Hotel, it was the Irgun. On the day of the bombing multiple calls to the hotel were made warning the occupants to get out. The British ignored the warnings.
Yes, in war, innocents suffer.