My take is that the Israeli government was to preoccupied with its own political challenges. Hamas picked a good time for its fight.

Sam Young had the best explanation for Hamas action:

https://amtoyumtimmy.medium.com/why-would-they-do-this-7c604f03ba1c

Basically, Sam hypothesized that Hamas has been slowly losing its legitimacy in Gaza--and needed something to shore up its authoritarian rule.

Another article, which I failed to bookmark, stated that more offshore oil & gas reserves have been discovered in Israel. Shortly after Oct 7, the author claimed that Israel wants to drive the Palestinians out of Gaza to get full control of these reserves. As events are unfolding, I wonder if this fellow is not on to something.

We never know of the REAL reasons governments do some of things they do. We can speculate all we want, but we were not in the back rooms to know for sure.

Undoubtedly, there is suspicion. Which breeds distrust. Which makes it more difficult for "good things" to move forward later.

We need a new way.