What's a proportional response?

Bassem Youssef said in this video:

Lets for a minute imagine a world without Hamas. What will this world look like? Let's give this world a name and let's name this world the West Bank. Hamas has absolutely no control in the West Bank and since the beginning of this year only through August, 37 Palestinian kids were killed. No music festival, no paragliding, no Hamas. Since the occupation of the West Bank, 7000 Palestinians have been killed. No music festival, no paragliding, no Hamas. I can go on and on and on and on.

George Galloway said in this video:

On the question of "Isn't it Hamas that started this?", Yes, but Israel would have known that if you keep 2.3 million people in a cage, they’re going to try and break out. So there’s all kinds of concomitants should have known in this story. They should have known when they occupied Palestinian land, drove hundreds of thousands of them out, never to return, that those people would have children, and they would have children, and enmity, bitterness, and the desire for revenge would exist forever. And so it has..

Norman Finkelstein said in this video:

There's another question: What did you expect the people of Gaza to do after being incarcerated in a concentration camp for 20 years? I know what you wanted them to do. You wanted them to just languish and die but did you not really expect that if they had the opportunity or made the opportunity that they would attempt to do something. Then there's the logic, if you look at World War 2, everytime the partisans, the resistance, killed a major Nazi officer, the Nazis retaliated in very bloody ways. The most famous of the killings was when the Czech partisans killed Reinhard Heydrich. What did the Nazis do? they went into the village of Lidice and flattened it and killed every male above the age of 14. There come Jack Tapper from radio berlin and he says What did you expect the Nazis to do? They killed Reinhard Heydrich! What did you expect them to do? The logic of his argument is the people of Gaza should do nothing. Because if they do anything, Israel is going to retaliate. What did you expect them to do?

The people of Gaza in the beginning of March 30th 2018, they tried nonviolence. They marched non-violently to the fence. What did Israel do? It targeted children, targeted Medics, targeted journalists, targeted people with physical disabilities, people on crutches and in wheelchairs and then comes Jake Tapper, well they were approaching the fence in Gaza, what did you expect the Israelis to do? That's his logic. The logic is, they should do nothing. They should just languish and die because if they do anything, what do you expect Israel to do!

I know the Israelis, that's exactly how they act but that doesn't mean that it is right! or that it's permissible!

If Hamas knew Israel was going to retaliate, why did they attack in the first place?

Short: The Palestinians, particularly those in Gaza, have endured this ‘war’ for decades. Efforts for peace, such as the Oslo Peace Accord in 1993, was not adhered to at all by the Israeli government, and the situation has worsened over time with continued Israeli occupation, settlement expansion, and restrictions on Palestinian life. Peaceful initiatives, like the March of Return in 2018, were met with lethal force from Israeli snipers, causing hundreds of casualties and injuring 36,000 innocent people. The Gaza Strip has been declared 'unlivable' even prior to this current genocide by the WHO due to the quality of life that is being imposed on Palestinians by the Israeli occupation. It's also crucial to understand that the reason for the recent Hamas attack was to take live hostages in order to negotiate the release of thousands of illegally imprisoned Palestinians, not to instigate harm to their own people or eradicate all Israelis and Jews.

Long: This 'war' has been going on for decades. The PLO (the governing body at the time) accepted all US and Israeli conditions for peace and signed the Oslo Peace Accord in 1993, in return for an end to Israeli occupation. 30 years have passed, and the Palestinians regained nothing. Israel actually ended up occupying more land, built more settlements, increased its military presence, and violated holy sites. Palestinians have tried to resist peacefully, they've tried everything. Each time it has only resulted in more and more deaths of the Palestinian people and stricter restrictions on their daily life, movements and access to resources.

In fact, in 2018 Palestinians in Gaza launched a peaceful initiative called the March of Return by walking to the Israeli military fence surrounding Gaza demanding an end to the suffocating blockade. Israeli snipers responded by killing hundreds of marchers, ¼ of them children and injuring over 36,000. For the Palestinians, peace treaties and peaceful marches have only exacerbated their loss and perpetuated their suffering. The current state of affairs for the past 75 years, particularly in the last 16 years, have rendered Gaza ‘unlivable’ according to the WHO. Finally, it's important to understand that the purpose of the Hamas attack was to take live hostages in order to facilitate the release of 10,000 illegally imprisoned Palestinian men, women and children - not to incite the destruction of their own people, nor the eradication of all Israelis.

Sources:

@raadbarhoush

@phantomchasr

This answer is taken from the document Palestine: in Conversation Document.