Is the suffering of so many equal to the life of one person

Whoever he may be, but in my understanding one person can never be considered more valuable than a whole nation. I guess this is against what Israel thinks. They retaliated for the worth of one soldier by destroying the life of all the Palestinians in Gaza. Honestly, I have always been against bloodshed and violence, I strongly believe that violence is the way of the weak, those who don't have the understanding of how to deal with situations appropriately. Even with this mindset, I have been struggling with the urge to call for the killing of that soldier, if he is worth more then so many people then the only correct action is to payback in the same fashion. The most annoying thing is the reaction of the world, more so the Arab world. The "developed" world says that it is acceptable for Israel to retaliate in this fashion for the captured soldier. It is amazing, that so many Palestine prisoners are not given the same benefits. Are they better beings then us, as an Arab I don't think so.