Hamas was never supposed to launch such attack on Israel, to be honest. Did they believe it would end up well for them and the people in the Gaza strip? If they thought so, then they are simply idiots. Specially since they aimed at civilians, they exchanged the future and the life of thousands of innocent people in order to brag for a successful and short attack in Israel territory.
To me, whoever was in charge of this attack had no sense of strategy or military actions in the long term. Unless Hamas expected Israel to get scared and surrender that attacked territory to Hamas? It would be pretty foolish to even consider that was a possibility. They have the support of USA...
This is a very sensitive matter for me because it involves the lives of innocent civilians who are being killed in a war where they are collateral damage. I don't like to take sides in a war, because in the end nobody really wins, as there are damages on either sides and the enmity can linger on for years. Having said that I believe that every country in this world owes it's citizens the right of protection, so if an external force attacks them in their territories, they have the right to defend and respond in equal terms. So on that I can not blame the IDF for responding to the killings and threats on their citizens, because if they don't greater calamity from the enemy can befall on them. Only it's very unfortunate that in the process of driving their enemies, innocent citizens of Palestine, are victims of their defense mechanism. I hope that the war will come to an end soon, because of the innocent lives that are lost.