I'm not sure on what basis you assert that that land was yours before anyone else's. Care to explain? And what of the Palestinian population that lives there?

Still, I don't even think the land is the most important aspect here to Palestinians. Perhaps it's cited as such by extremists, but not to the population in general, as far as I can tell; their human rights seem to be the most important thing to them - not surprising. In this context, let's not forget that Israel has stated their intention to keep the population on the occupied territories (Gaza in particular) on a level just slightly above to that of an humanitarian crisis, as was leaked by Wikileaks, and later officially acknowledged.

Now, I don't really agree with Hamas' violent tactics, but in what meaningful sense is Israel defending itself by oppressing Palestinians? Don't you think this only serves to further radicalize the population, and increase the threat over time? It seems to me that dealing with this first would be the best way for Israel to defend itself, instead of furthering the conflict.