There is a photo, and I hope I don’t have to copy it here. It is from October 7, and it was taken by Hamas affiliated photographers. It shows a young woman, nabbed from the music festival. She was near naked, bleeding from her groin (she had been raped by many “men”, and the blood was either from brutal intrusions or-and one hates to mention this kind of detail, but it happened often- from knife thrusts into her vagina). Her right leg was formed into several unnatural angles; it is difficult to imagine the process(es) by which it had been broken so often and severely.
She was in the back of a pickup truck heading to Gaza; the intent seems to have been to keep her as a hostage. Evidently, at some point, they realized how impractical that was- the effort to keep her alive after those injuries and the problems coming as a survivor relating her horrors- so they killed her and dumped her along the way. She was found with her head severed, and no one can say whether the decapitation was the coup de grace, or some post death ritual debasement.
These acts, committed on this young woman, and many others, were not the results of chaos, anger and opportunity. They were the plan. the Hamas leaders are and were proud of them and freely admit plans for more of the same.
Israel could negotiate with Hamas. That would be a reward for October 7, and so there will be more October 7’s.
Israel could just have a limited military engagement, get a tit for tat, maybe a little more, and call it good, leaving Hamas and its Iranian funders intact. Again, there will be more October 7’s.
Israel decided, instead, to slay the monsters, along with many of the innocents that the monsters hide among. That is tragic, but, for the life of me, I can’t think of a better option.