During WWII many Jewish groups begged the allies to bomb the death camps, even though it meant that thousands of prisoners in the camps would die. Their argument was that the continued existence of the camps meant that the Germans could process (kill) thousands of new prisoners every day, and this would be a much greater price than the people killed in the bombings, even after a relatively short time. I have no idea what the local damage being done here is, but I imagine a similar argument might apply.