I completely disagreed with Israels continue land grab on the west bank the last couple decades which undermined the two state solution. And when Hamas committed terrible murders on Oct 7 last year, I had hoped that Israeli retribution, which was going to happen, would have been more targeted.

That said, why is it those in power, whether Hamas or the PA, have to prey on their own people? PA is corrupt. Hamas, which won an election in 2006 and never held another, took in billions of dollars in aid and built a three levels underground war machine. Neither seems to be doing much to improve the lives of the people under their control.

The fallback is always "it is Israels's fault." Some of it is but there are things the PA and Hamas did have the ability to address. They chose not to.