Laravel - route("resource.destroy") calls "resource.show" - laravel

Question

This is the web.php
Route::group(['middleware' => 'auth'],
function () {
Route::get('letters/getRows', 'LetterController#getRows')->name('letters.getRows');
Route::get('letters/{letter}/A4', 'LetterController#A4')->name('letters.A4');
Route::get('letters/{letter}/A5', 'LetterController#A5')->name('letters.A5');
Route::resource('letters', 'LetterController');
}
);
I created a link as follow
"<a class='mx-2 h5' href='".route('letters.destroy', $entity->id)."'><i class='icon-remove-circle'></i></a>".
where the $entity->id is the id of the letter. The problem is, it links to show method not the destroy method. What can I do?
Using a form like this
{{ Form::open(array('route' => array('letters.destroy', $entity->id), 'method' => 'delete')) }}
<button type="submit" >Delete Account</button>
{{ Form::close() }}
may solve the problem but I want to use a tag not a form.
update
In the php artisan route:list, the url of destroy and show are the same
thanks

Answer 1

When you use the Route::resource method it will create, among others, a route to DESTROY a resource like this: /letters/:id/ and another route to EDIT the resource: /letters/:id, and one more to SHOW /letters/:id
They all look the same. However, the difference is in the HTTP method/verb used to reach each route.
If you look to the output if php artisan route:list, you will find the list of HTTP methods used. Something like:
GET|HEAD | letters/{letter} | letters.show
PUT|PATCH | letters/{letter} | letters.update
DELETE | letters/{letter} | letters.destroy
Therefore, to show a letter, you use a GET method, to edit a letter, use PUT method, and to destroy/delete, you use a DELETE method.
When you use an a tag, the browser will use the GET method, thus will reach the letters.show route. Html forms, can use POST or GET. Finally to use the DELETE http method, you need a form with hidden input named _method and the value="delete inside the form. Check the docs for more details.
There is also a note about this in LaravelCollective package documentations
Note: Since HTML forms only support POST and GET, PUT and DELETE methods will be spoofed by automatically adding a _method hidden field to your form.
Finally, if you must use an anchor tag <a>, you could use javascript to listen to the click event and submit a form with DELETE method.
Update to add an example:
You can find an example of using an anchor tag to submit the form, in the default app layout in the framework here
And this is a modified version to submit a delete request:
<a class="dropdown-item" href="#"
onclick="event.preventDefault();
document.getElementById('destroy-form').submit();">
{{ __('DELETE') }}
</a>
<form id="destroy-form" action="{{ route('letters.destroy', $entity) }}" method="POST" style="display: none;">
#method('DELETE')
#csrf
</form>

Answer 2

You cant. If you want to make a DELETE request you need to spoof it via a form (method POST, _method DELETE) or use Javascript.
Hyperlinks will cause new requests which will be GET requests. That is just how the web works.