While I don't like getting into who is right or wrong in this long-standing conflict, I'll just point a little fact.

From articles of different writers and different ways, I can see that Hamas is a small minority of the Palestinian people in Gaza. One pundit estimated that maybe 2% of the people belong to Hamas--and yet that 2% can dictate what the other 98% can say or do. So (in my opinion) taking the battle to civilians in this way is overkill.

Medium contributor Sam Young had an interesting hypothesis. Basically he said that Hamas was losing its hold on the Gaza people. They needed to stir up the pot to justify their hold on power:

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

Sam's article makes the most sense of all my readings on this topic.

Here's another interesting article:

https://medium.com/@wlockett/palestines-500-billion-reason-to-be-subjugated-d093e59dca02

Basically, more oil/gas reserves have been found in Israel's Mediterraen. The article does not say exactly where. But if there is a future offshore field outside of Gaza City, this just might explain the drive to push the Gazans to the south of Gaza, making Gaza City uninhabitable for decades. Take the land, get the oil.

Both sides are making big decisions for the wrong reasons. Another reason we need a different system of governance.