Hamas should take responsibility
- for the terrible events of October 7th, particularly targeted at women
- for deliberately derailing attempts at peace in the Middle East
- for trying to undermine Israel as a state
- for deliberately starting what was always going to be a very terrible war with Israel.
- and also for hiding behind hospital, schools, women and children
- having taken a large number of hostages (and treated at least some of them very badly)
Hamas has governance over Gaza, so its actions carry a strong political weight
Once Hamas set events in motion, Israel was inevitably drawn in.
That seems to be what happened - that isn't in dispute is it?
If you think that all war is murder, regardless of the rights and wrongs, then I guess what is happening could be called murder.
But if you think that a state has a right to try and prevent further incursions against its citisens to kidnap, rape, torture and murder, then it gets more complicated. There are definitely 2 sides to this.
I'm not Israeli myself, but I think Hamas bears a huge responsibility for what is happening and it doesn't help anyone to pretend otherwise.