So how did a bunch of smart people, smart enough to build an enormous terror infrastructure in a tiny strip of land, smart enough to assemble an incredible array and supply of armaments, smart enough to deceive, in plain sight, one of the most sophisticated intelligence agencies ever, do something so stupid to invite the full wrath of the IDF?
Did they think they could perpetrate such a large-scale attack, take hundreds of hostages, and commit horrible atrocities without suffering devastating destruction in response?
Were they so wild-eyed in their rabid Jew-hatred that, in a crazed frenzy of radical zeal, they suddenly believed their own propaganda and took their best shot at actually destroying Israel and the IDF?
Nope. They didn't. Far from it. Yet they did what they did and, yes, they knew the ramifications would come. They weren't worried about it at all nor surprised. Not because they figured it was worth the euphoric glory of one last attack on Israel and by extension Jews worldwide. And not because they had absolute faith and belief in their Axis of Evil to join the foray and protect them from suffering any serious damage.
They're not suicidal either. Not at all. As much as Golda Meir's insightful and farsighted remark that "We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us" is as true today as it was when she said it over half a century ago, they don't want to wipe out their children. At a superficial glance it might seem like they are willing to take their entire population on a kamikaze death trip. The reality is that they are only willing to sacrifice many lives as a means to accomplish their end goals.
They do embrace a fantastic fanatic idea that when they die for the cause of destroying the Jews the reward in the afterlife will be well worth it. Since death is celebrated for even their most senior and ruthless terrorists, certainly women and children are expendable for their agenda. But they still know they need many of them to stay in existence on this side of the life divide to finish the job that Hitler left undone. So, no, they didn't intend get one last suicidal sucker punch in before meeting a bitter end to this long struggle.
If they were so cunning, carefully thinking, and nevertheless expected mass destruction, what was their plan?
Simple. They intended to win and had a real formula to succeed. They probably are even extremely shocked that they didn't win. Yet. They still have reason to believe they will. They knew very well, that, even if all conditions worked in their favor, the most they might have achieved is several times the horrible damage they wreaked on October 7th. That still wouldn't have destroyed Israel. Not close.
And, yes, they expected the onslaught in response to be severe and significant. Indeed, they welcomed it. They knew that, after losing thousands of their finest terrorists, including numerous leaders, and seeing significant infrastructure destroyed, they would still win. Just by weathering the storm until their tried and tested blueprint for success is complete.
Because they have a secret weapon hiding in plain sight. It's their biggest weapon and it really can make them win. It still might. And no, the weapon is not the hostages. They know that hostages can only be used as a manipulation and bargaining chip but can’t make them win.
They do need fuel for their weapon in order to ultimately win. That fuel is dead civilian women and children. Almost, the more the better. If Israel would be overly careful and didn't produce enough dead civilians, that too wouldn't pose much of a problem. Hamas can spare some bullets to display some more dead kids for photo ops.
Simply putting on a Pallywood show or better yet just claiming that more and more civilians are being killed by Israel will often also do the trick. They learned to rely on the world to believe anything they claim about their plight. The only problem was how to stop Israel from fully decimating them before their weapon allowed them to achieve and declare a complete glorious victory.
That's where the useful idiot sympathetic protesting pawns, the useful media, and useful politicians come in to play. They are the only ones powerful enough to stop Israel in time before complete destruction. They are the secret weapon that will actually deliver their victory.
And that's why Hamas is shocked. They never expected their time-tested weapon of a trusty manipulated world to not function as planned and for Israel to still be fighting.
This all is rational to them because of their definition of success. Winning for them is accomplished by simply hurting Israel, killing Jews, enduring a crushing onslaught, gaining the sympathy of enough countries to force Israel to be satisfied with just a massive blow to Hamas, and be compelled to retreat. Then these same sympathizers will pour billions of dollars on Gaza after the war to help rebuild an even bigger and better civilian/terror infrastructure.
They also showed Iran what they are capable of and willing to do if only they had a better arsenal and some more cooperation. Iran will then happily restock and rearm them. They consider that a categorical victory. And from their perspective, they are right.
If not for this incredible tool at their disposal, they would have no chance. If the world powers, Israel's allies, the media, and useful protesters would respect that Israel will keep international law (especially under such extraordinary scrutiny) and would not pressure Israel at all over dead civilians, then dead civilians wouldn't be useful tools for the terrorists. They would have little gain from swamping the world media with bloody pictures, some perhaps real but most fake. Hiding in neighborhoods and homes would have minimal benefit if Israel wouldn't be villainized when bombing terror personnel causes the tragedy of innocent civilians dying along with the terrorists. They also wouldn't have the safety benefit of hiding their instruments of terror in hospitals and kindergartens.
But displaying dead civilians to the world has proven to be lucrative for them and the predictable reactions always result in the world powers forcing Israel to stop well before annihilating Hamas. They know they just need to generate a few more gory images of dead and injured civilians to finally win. Yes, the root causes for the abundance of dead civilians are the anti-Israel save-Gaza protesters, media, and politicians.
The cruel irony is that all those who demand Israel stop out of their concern for Gazans being killed are the reason Hamas makes sure the death toll of women and children increases.
None of the protests declaring great care for the civilians in Gaza, none of the media personalities who are mouthing dire concerns, and most of the world's politicians, ever do anything other than demand and pressure to compel and force Israel to stop its operations. There are even calls for Israel to stop existing in order to accomplish the claimed humanitarian desire of safety for Gazan civilians. Politicians worldwide including US leaders who vocalize criticism of Hamas still make sure to balance their occasional condemnation of Hamas with a healthy dose of sharp criticism and expectations of Israel.
The power of protest and pressure is never used to influence those who have any leverage on the terrorists to do anything even slightly to protect or save Gazan civilians.
Hamas took careful note of this. They learned not to be concerned that anyone claiming they care about Gazans will turn on them. The only concern Hamas has is how to keep their narrative and spectacle of gore and death in focus of the countless sympathizers and media outlets who fawn over dead Gazans to generate self-righteous feelings of humane compassion for the unfortunate victims of Israel’s aggression.
In short, Hamas offers the world, "You need dead Gazans to pressure and stop Israel? Sure. How many? We'll arrange them for you, celebrate victory, and see you back for more in about 10 years!.”