First of all, Hamas is no angel. In the past Hamas has done some horrible things - suicide bombings on civilian targets and launching a missile at a school bus just to name a couple. These are war crimes, illegal under international law, they serve no purpose but to make things worse for both sides and they don't help anyone at all - most of all the families of those who are affected.
But ever since November 2012, Hamas and Israel have been under a ceasefire. During that ceasefire Hamas has refrained from rocket attacks on Israel. I know what you're thinking - rockets were coming out of Gaza and landing in Israel between November 2012 and now, and that's definitely true. But these rockets didn't come from Hamas and more importantly, Hamas was trying to stop them.
Hamas deploys 600-strong force to prevent rocket fire at Israel
http://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-establishes-special-force-to-prevent-rocket-fire/#ixzz37MFA5sKO
Hamas arrests terror cell responsible for rocket fire on Israel
http://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-...ible-for-rocket-fire-on-israel/#ixzz37MFLhn3Q
An Israeli army general says Hamas is stopping attacks against Israel and even keeps the peace when the IDF operates along the border.
http://972mag.com/head-of-idfs-gaza-command-hamas-is-the-new-policeman-in-gaza/82895/
So now that is out of the way let's look at this conflict from where it started (some will say it started with the death of 2 Palestinian teens who were shot during a protest) but I'll say it started with the kidnapping of 3 Israeli teens in the West Bank.
After those teens were kidnapped the Israeli government started rounding up Palestinians and arresting them, many of those arrested are still being held without charge. At the time Israel was saying that the operation was under way in order to find the kidnapped teens. Later on it was revealed that the Israeli government knew that the teens were dead but issued a gag order as to the evidence that would suggest that while at the same time insisting they were alive and maintaining that the operation in the West Bank was to find the kidnapped teens.
Details of the 100′ call (the local equivalent of 911) and what investigators discovered in the car used for the kidnapping of three Israeli teens earlier this month were well known by security service heads, top ministers and even journalists early on in the affair; but not by the public because it was all placed and kept under a tightly held gag order. The blood found in the car, the sound of gun shots in the emergency call, evidence of live ammunition and the fact that there hasnt been a single instance of two or more people being held hostage in the West Bank in decades all that led to a single logical assumption: the teens were no longer alive. Yet at the same time, the Israeli public was told the teens were being held by Hamas, and a public campaign calling for their return was launched.
http://972mag.com/how-the-public-was-manipulated-into-believing-the-teens-were-alive/92865/
As this all happened, Israel's government was blaming Hamas for the kidnapping of the teens - despite showing no evidence to support that claim.
As far as is known, the Hamas leadership in Gaza was not part of the chain of command behind the abduction, carried out by a Hamas cell from Hebron on July 12.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.603889
But despite all of this, Hamas didn't react. They continued trying to stop the rocket attacks on Israel and were hoping that the unity government that was just set up would give them a diplomatic way to deal with the prisoners.
Keep in mind that while these attacks didn't come from Hamas (Hamas takes responsibility for their attacks, they denied involvement in the ones preceding the Israeli retaliation) Israel would always strike Hamas targets in retaliation.
Then came the straw that broke the camel's back, at least for Hamas:
Hamas has had no interest in a major escalation, and had not been directly attacking Israel until the last few days. But ever since one of its members, Mohammed Obeid, was killed in an Israeli border attack at the end of last month an apparent error: the IDF thought it was firing at a rocket-launch cell, but actually struck Hamas members deployed to prevent rocket fire it has changed its approach.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/hamas-smells-israels-fear-of-escalation-and-so-the-rockets-keep-coming/
One of their members was killed by Israel while trying to stop rocket attacks on Israel. For the first time, Hamas started firing rockets back at Israel and took full responsibility for firing those rockets.
And so it goes now where the two sides are fighting back and forth.
The claims of 'human shields' from Israel are ridiculous - the homes they are hitting aren't legitimate military targets. That means the homes they are hitting are like your home or my home, the only reason they are giving to attack those homes is that there are members of Hamas who live there. This is a war crime.
Since the Israeli military launched Operation Protective Edge in the early hours of 8 July 2014, the IDF Spokesperson and media sources have reported deliberate attacks against the homes of senior activists in armed Palestinian groups. The IDF Spokesperson reported that 11 such homes were attacked. According to media reports, the defense establishment intends to continue attacking the homes of senior Hamas activists. The reports state that the bombings are being carried out with the knock on the roof procedure, whereby the military fires a small missile at the house it intends to bomb as warning, expecting inhabitants to leave the premises, and then bombs the house to destruction. In some cases, military representative call the family and instruct them to evacuate the house.
Even if uninvolved civilians are not injured, these houses are not legitimate military targets, and attacking them is a grave violation of international humanitarian law. The gravity of the violation is compounded when uninvolved civilians are injured. Until now, BTselem has documented one case in which civilians were in a house bombed after a prior warning missile was fired:
http://www.btselem.org/press_releases/20140709_bobming_of_houses_in_gaza
