Hamas is not a terrorist organization.
The Israeli government is a terrorist organization.
The Palestinian people as a demographic do not hate Jewish people.
Jewish Israelis as a demographic hate Palestinians.
These are facts that are only provocative insofar as they go against the mainstream narrative. If you spend time learning about the history of the region and the people, and spend time talking to Israelis and Palestinians, spend time reading their respective literature and engaging with the news published by Haaretz, spend time watching Al Jazeera, you will come to understand these things as pretty uncontroversial normal statements of fact.
I'm saying these things plainly here so you, as the reader, can check in with your emotions reading them. If you find yourself getting defensive or angry or nervous or upset reading these things, that is a strong indication that you are not very knowledgeable about what's happening and would benefit from learning more.
Hamas won elections overwhelmingly in 2006, getting over 70 seats in the legislature. Israel and the US promptly blockaded Gaza and arrested 68 of those elected. Hamas has tried peace and negotiations many many MANY times. The peace march in 2018 where thousands of Gazans marched to the wall to draw attention to the genocide taking place were met by Israeli snipers who spend days killing and shooting out the knee caps of literally thousands of Palestinians. The Al-Aqsa Flood was an attempt by Hamas to confront the IDF around Gaza. They did not know there was a music festival taking place and upon realizing it, immediately began asking people where the military was and taking hostages. The IDF responded by shooting from among the crowd at Hamas militants while an IDF Apache helicopter shot indiscriminately at the crowd and later, IDF artillery was launched at Hamas as well as at Israeli civilians. The operation by Hamas had been planned for two years to target IDF military installations. Of the roughly 1200 Israelis killed on October 7th, 1/3 were military and of the remaining civilians, almost all were killed in the crossfire between Hamas and the IDF, and many possibly even MOST of those were killed by the IDF themselves in an attempt to kill Hamas.
That is not a terror attack just because people were terrified. Terror attacks are defined as targeting civilians for the purpose of terrorizing a populace in service of a political or ideological objective. Civilians getting killed during an attack on military infrastructure is not a terrorist attack.
Conversely, Israel has continuously and openly committed terrorist attacks against the Palestinian people for 75 years. Even before then, the Zionist settlers who were occupying Palestine engaged in terrorism in Palestinian villages. A man named Orde Wingate trained Zionist troops in what was called hasiyur ha-alim, or 'violent reconnaissance'. It was a terrorist method utilized by the Hagana, the Zionist paramilitary group that aided in the ethnic cleansing of Palestine and formed during the British mandate. This is the practice: Pick a village that has no defense or weapons so there is no risk of combat, enter the village around midnight, stay for several hours and wait. Shoot anyone that leaves their home during this time. Then depart after several hours have passed.
This example is particularly stomach churning and I would genuinely caution you to skip it if you're at all unsure. It concerns the killing of gay men by the Israeli military and it is one of the more horrific things I've read.
This is a passage from the book Brothers and Others In Arms, a collection of interviews with gay and bisexual Israeli soldiers.
The state of Israel has been a terrorist organization from the beginning - the Jewish Zionist population in 1947 was 600,000 compared to the 1.3 million Palestinians living on that land. Terrorism was an essential tool in gaining power and ethnically cleansing the land of Palestinians and has remained a key pilar of Israeli policy toward Palestinians ever since.
It is crucial to talk about Zionist Jews and Israeli Jews and not simply "Jews" because "Jew" is not a universal identity the way Zionists make it out to be. The vast majority of Palestinians do not hate Jewish people or oppose the Jewish faith. Jewish people existed peacefully among Christians and Muslims in the region for a long time, which is why when the Zionist movement chose Palestine as the location for a Jewish only theocracy and there was a large influx of Jewish Zionist immigrants, Palestinians hardly took notice or felt concerned. They had no reason to think in the years between when the Zionist project began and when the Nakba took place in 1948 that their Jewish Zionist neighbors and friends and community members would turn against them or want to expel them from the land. The Palestinian people have no historical or present day grievances with Jews, what they DO have are grievances with Zionists and Israeli Jews who insist on a Jewish-only state on Palestinian land.
Conversely, the vast majority of Israeli Jews DO have a problem with Palestinians and DO see Palestinian liberation and freedom as a threat. If you look at polling and public opinion and Israeli politics since the state's creation, what you will find is support for either complete Palestinian genocide, or support for a two state solution where Palestinians are ghettoized and forced to live as they do now - on tiny tracks of separate, disparate plots of land that are managed and defined by the Israeli government. What almost no Israeli Jews support is a single secular state where Palestinians have equal citizenship and where Jewish citizens do not receive special rights or privileges.
That is because Israel has a concept and practical entity is a Jewish supremacist theocracy whose entire reason for existing IS to be a Jewish state, which by definition means legal and institutional authority for Jews above all others. That project is inherently at odds with the Palestinian population who is A) Majority NOT Jewish and B) are the rightful and original inhabitants of that land and thus wish to return to the now occupied homes that were once theirs.
This is a broad strokes overview of the initial four points but I want to emphasize: if you take the time to learn more about all of these things what you will find is that I have downplayed each of these facts. I have understated Hamas' role as a governing body that provides healthcare and services to Palestinians, I have downplayed the conscious and deliberate terrorism inflicted by the Israeli government and by Israeli settlers, I have undersold just how much Palestinians want a free state that is open to Jews as it is Christians and Muslims, and I have vastly understated just how much the average Israeli resents and derides the average Palestinian.
These are things you can learn about on social media, but they are best learned through reading books and through first hand engagement where possible.
The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine - Ilan Pappe
Orientalism - Edward Said
The Holocaust Industry Norman Finkelstein
Expulsion of the Palestinians - Nur Masalha
These are good starting places. From here, it will become obvious what to read next. Be patient and remain committed to genuine growth and learning and you will come to have a much stronger and clearer intuition when it comes to processing the news and understanding what is happening not just in Palestine, but across the globe.