Gale did not kill Prim. He didn’t order the bomb strike and he didn’t drop the bombs.
He did however create a bomb (with Beetee) that was deigned to pray on human kindness and target medical personal since it was rigged to blow again after help for the first explosion arrived.
At some point, Gale and Beetee left the wilderness behind and focused on more human impulses. Like compassion. A bomb explodes. Time is allowed for people to rush to the aid of the wounded. Then a second, more powerful bomb kills them as well. - Mockingjay page 177
The fact that his bombs killed Prim is very important to the story, but not as a way to resolve the love triangle (bc Katniss would have chosen Peeta, bombs or no bombs but that’s for a different analysis).
“Beetee and I have been following the same rule book President Snow used when he hijacked Peeta.” says Gale. - Mockingjay page 177
Gale making the bombs that killed Prim is important because it shows the horrors of war. It demonstrates how when you stoop to the level of cruelty and atrocities as your opponent, you hurt everyone around you, especially the people you are trying to protect.
Gale didn’t mean for his bombs to kill Prim, but that doesn’t matter in the end, because his bombs were designed to target compassion and Prim was the embodiment of compassion.
Gale didn’t mean for his bombs to murder innocent children but that doesn’t matter because he was willing to do anything to win the war and the includes the mass murder of children.
It’s important that Gale’s bombs killed Prim because it shows that there are consequences to praying on human kindness.
It shows that the innocent pay the price of war. Katniss is going to have to live with the knowledge that her best friend created the bombs that killed her sister, and yes he never meant to hurt Prim but that’s war. Gale is going to have to live with the guilt and the knowledge that his need to win the war at all costs lead to the death of the little girl he had promised protect. Gale has to live with the fact that he played a hand in taking away the person Katniss loved the most, and he has to live with the fact that it cost him his best friend forever.
Gale was just a kid, like Katniss and he chose to create something that would actively target compassion, not really thinking about the consequences it might have because all he wanted was to destroy the Capitol. And in the end, it he’s going to be living with that guilt and those consequences for the rest of his life.
Katniss doesn’t cut off Gale because she’s not in love with him or whatever. Katniss can’t be around him at the end because she’s unable to ignore or tolerate the things Gale was willing to and justify do to win the war and how that lead to the death of her sister. Katniss and Gale reacted very differently to the war and their different perspectives and approaches were always going to get in-between anything they ever had (friendship or relationship).
There is no winning a war without getting blood on your hands and Suzanne Collins showed it perfectly when she had wrote the arc with Gale, Prim and the bombs.
Gale is not a villain, war isn’t black and white. He was young and trying to win a war but his actions have consequences and one of those consequences was Prim’s death.
Gale didn’t kill Prim and that makes it all the more tragic that he played such a big role in her death.
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