But, but, but, October 7th was entirely unprovoked. (Sarcasm fully intended.)
The tally as of 4th October was 248 Palestinians killed by Israelis this year, and 35 Israelis by Palestinians. Every week there were more killings, the vast majority unjustifiable like this one. We had an ongoing conversation around my household about how long it would be before it all blew up. It triggered again every week (often daily) when more were murdered. My prediction was 12 months but it came a bit sooner.
It wasn't unprovoked, but if your neighborhood is being attacked by corrupt law enforcement you don't respond by attacking the random people that live in the neighborhoods where that law enforcement is from. You attack the law enforcement itself.
Sure there are basically portions of Israel that are essentially corrupt law enforcement, or gangs that are allowed to operate because of "law enforcement's" blind eye. But this cannot ever justify attacking anyone other than those directly conducting or supporting violence. That is, attack should be in proportion to violation. Sure yes the general Israeli population is somewhat culpable, if for no other reason that they don't stand up against violence committed "in the name of Israel", same as some of the residents of Gaza are culpable for not standing up against violence committed "in the name of Palestine." But is silence or indifference really the same as active participation? If so, then
we all deserve ultimate violence, because there is no meaningful distinction of degrees of culpability.
EDIT: is it possible, by definition, for a State to conduct terrorism? Isn't it simply acts of war or (war) crimes? Honest question here, I thought terrorism has a more narrow definition. Otherwise it seems like the term just gets watered down, and absolutely "anything" can be labeled terrorism.