@
PlanetWarrior
Well this is where Gaza gets very complicated, let's start here. The rockets were first made by metal scraps by Palestinian resistance organization to use against the Israeli military and illegal settlers presence in Gaza. Israel did not withdraw their presence until 2005. So these rockets at the time were made to get Israel withdraw from our territory. I believe that was justified, then we get to 2004-2006 era, there was much violence in between so there was already a state of war. It's very complicated to go over literal events one by one, so Israel was attacking Gaza and did conduct air offensives and limited ground offensives. So by that aspect they were justified in firing these homemade rockets across the border which mostly landed in open areas far from any Israelis. Only a couple nearby towns from Gaza which had Israeli military presence were shelled lightly. So this was all due to end when the national government as formed, 2006 Hamas representatives won the majority and they were supposed to be integrated into the government. Keep in mind the US and Israel told the Palestinians to do elections and said they would recognize the democratic process. They did not tell the truth, Hamas was prevented to govern by PA forces and Israel/US immediately tried to get concessions out of Hamas. Which one is to recognize the Israeli occupation and end our quest for freedom, the other one was to disarm with no guarantees at all.
Hamas was very lightly armed and small during this period, so if they disarmed anyways. Would Israel stop exercising control over Gaza and it's blockade and siege? Would we have access to our resources? Would we have real conditions of a fully sovereign state? The US and Israel did not say anything about that. Since the PA in the West Bank agreed to similar conditions, and look at the result yourself.
So you get to 2006, Hamas needed to make a score, why? Because they need a negotiating card to get the world to recognize their election victory. Which is why they captured an Israeli soldier, keep in mind in 2006 Israel imposed a siege and blockade on Gaza which cause many horrific humanitarian conditions. During these periods from 2004-2008 thousands of Palestinians inside Gaza were also killed. So a blockade is considered an act of war, therefore Palestinians are justified into retaliation. Hamas wanted a diplomatic solution like any other Palestinian organization. The world was ignoring the democratic results and supporting Israel's collective punishment. So eventually a coup was attempted by the US backed PA and it failed. So Israel declared Gaza an enemy state(which was the plan in the first place). The restrictions were also imposed during the 90's not after Hamas was elected. So after all this Israeli violence against Gaza a ceasefire was declared and Hamas prevented any Palestinian organization from attacking Israel even though it is legally justified. We had a ceasefire for nearly six months until Israel killed 6 Palestinian resistance fighters and this led to a larger escalation. Still however, Palestinians were weak and only capable of firing rockets made of metal scraps across the border. Hamas said they want the siege eased because it's causing a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, we can't export, and importing is delayed by Israel so even if the world sends medical supplies israel delays it intentionally. They have counted how many calories Palestinians need to not starve. I'm serious about this, so we have a miserable situation and the world is just watching.
So eventually the violence carried on since Israel was being very disproportionate. Israel then launched a massive offensive which much if the world condemned, look at the amnesty international report. They killed over 700 civilians and destroyed over 4,000 homes. Is this something 'peaceful' people would do? Did we really have to be destroyed just because we asked the world to ease the restrictions against our people? So after that there has largely been peace except when Israel attacks Gaza again. So after this occurred bro, we have lost hope, so the Palestinians are justified in arming themselves, not in using their weapons unprovoked. So they armed and became more organized.
Here are instances of any major violence:
April 2011: Israel accused three Hamas military commanders of going to travel to Egypt in the next week to kidnap Israelis. This was bulllshit, so a week later Hamas responded by firing an anti tank weapon at what they presumed to be an Israeli military bus since it was an Israeli military road very close to Gaza. It turned out to be civilians, Hamas didn't know this, one Israeli died, the same night 19 Palestinians were killed.
August 2011: Egyptian militants attacked Israel killed a few soldiers and two civilians, Israel immediately attacked Gaza killing six Palestinians and there was a small Palestinian reponse but other civilians were killed until dozens were killed. After a couple of days it became calm.
March 2012: Israel accused a faction leader of an imminent threat, this was denied by the Palestinians. They assassinated him and one Palestinian organization retaliated so Israel would stop killing our people. It ended after a week and 22 Palestinians were killed.
November 2012: Israel was committing incursions on a daily basis, they invaded Gaza and got in armed clash which killed a Palestinian child from helicopter fire. On November 10 I believe this happened, so Palestinians on November 12 responded with targeting the Israeli military jeep which injured four of their soldiers. Right after this an Israeli tank shelled indiscriminately and killed 4 civilians and wounded another 29. So the Palestinians fired rockets somewhat intensely until a cease fire was reached. November 13 it was largely calm, on the morning of November 14 israel killed the military commander of Hamas and 7 other civilians also dozens were wounded. So you tell me? All we could do is respond, this lead to an 7 day war. Gaza actually was stronger this time and had a good reponse so a ceaseifr was reached after one week. When Gaza was weak in 2009 Israel attacked for weeks and went on a ground invasion.
Ever since then it has largely been calm, and the Palestinians in Gaza need an arsenal to serve as a deterrence, we don't attack israel unprovoked. To this day no restrictions have been eased. So if Palestinians have a capability to hit central Israel, Israel will think twice before killing Palestinians in Gaza. They don't think twice in the West Bank since everyday the Palestinians there have their rights violated.
So if Gaza was a filly sovereign state and Israel was not an occupying state and Gaza committed an act of war then that would make sense to condemn them. However, that's not the case as I explained above.