People who think that raping women, beheading children, burning families alive and taking children (even babies) and the elderly as hostages is an "act of legitimate resistance" have clearly lost any humanity. I don't have much to say to them.
Unfortunately many in the "free Palestine" crowd do say the above.
The majority of people, however, I really hope, think that this a barbaric act. Some, unlike the BBC can even say that this is terrorism.
Many people understand that for Israel it is necessary to get rid of Hamas.
There are, of course many people who are worried about the casualties among the innocent Palestinian civilians.
Some of these support Hamas. They might have not participated in the actual attack but they support it, they cheered for it, glorified it. These people cannot be considered "innocent".
There are many others who do not support Hamas.
If you look at the history of Hamas in Gaza, I think it is pretty clear that internally they are a dictatorship. They came to power by murdering their political enemies and they keep doing that today. They steal a large chunk of the aid that Western countries send to the Palestinians. They ruin the local infrastructure (e.g. They dug out the water pipes and used them to make rockets). It is very clear that many people in Gaza suffer from Hamas.
I see all kinds of numbers about the level of support Hamas enjoys in the Gaza strip. Let's look at the Washington Institute polling, conducted in July 2023. I guess it all depends on the poll and on the interpretation of the numbers.
Supporting Hamas?
Some say that the majority of Gaza residents support Hamas as they see it as the main organization to "fight the occupation" (reminder, Israel left Gaza in 2005) and "lead the resistance".
If this is the case, if the majority of Gaza residents (aka. the Palestinians) think that beheading children is legitimate, then I don't fully understand how anyone, except rabid antisemites can support the Palestinians.
Not supporting Hamas
If the understanding is that Hamas is only supported by a small minority of Gaza residents and the majority only suffers from them, then I guess people who "support the Palestinians" will want to get rid of the Hamas dictatorship, right?
So how will that happen?
One way is that Israel manages to eliminate them. Of course we would primarily do it for our own security, but as a side effect it will help the Palestinian people to get rid of the dictatorship.
If not this, then how will the Palestinian people be able to get rid of Hamas, their dictators?