I think you have to take under consideration that Hamas has been attacking Israel for decades with little repercussions. I think they crossed a redline and convinced Israel much worse than a few rockets being lobbed over the wall was the future and Israel answered them with the only thing that Hamas understands, annihilation. I'm still convinced that Israel does not want civilian casualties of regular, non Hamas aligned Palestinians, because they absolutely would be killing a lot more of them if that was the case. War is hell and the West has forgotten that since WW2.
Why do you think Hamas has been involved in fighting against Israel? Just because they're evil? They're an oppressed people fighting an occupier. The massacres by the hands of the Isaeli far outnumber those by Hamas. From the 400k displaced people in the six day war, to the Sabra and Shatila massacre, to the regular "mowing the lawn" operations in gaza (that's what Israel dubbed their bombing campaigns in Gaza in the past couple decades), to the violent israeli response to the peaceful march of return protest, to the current ongoing genocide, Israel is not "defending" itself. There is no defensive genocide, there is no defensive apartheid. The idea that Hamas is not itself an answer to the continued ethnic cleansing campaign carried out by Israel is a joke.
If Israel wanted to genocide Palestinians they would all be dead tomorrow or in prison-like re-educations camps. I do not agree with the way they are handling it, it could be done like the way US took Fallujah for example, section by section, conquer-and-hold and work more with the locals, especially basic needs, without turning everything into rubble and telling the Palestinians they're on their own for food and supplies. That sucks, and it's wrong, and Biden has been doing his best to tell them to stop that shit. it's not genocide though. Hamas is the target that is to be destroyed, not Gazans (who aren't Hamas). Sure they can't stop the movement 100% but they can kill or imprison the bulk of the current practitioners depending on if they want to surrender or not
By this argument, since there's still Jewish people around, the holocaust was not a genocide, which I find a completely unacceptable conclusion.
> if this were a genocide, they'd be in camps
Gaza has been described and essentially functions as a concentration camp. 2.5 million people in an area the size of Rotterdam, no going in or out, all borders, shores, airspace controlled by Israel, food, electricity, water supply controlled (and heavily restricted) by Israel. By your argument it is in fact a genocide, and I'm inclined to agree.
