7/10 was the reason Israel needed to justify to itself what it has done/is doing, but it wasn't the start of things.
Everyone expected a response, but I'm not sure anyone expected the scale of the destruction that we've seen. Regardless, the point is that a) there's no self defence, that's bollox, and b) Hamas as an entity won't be defeated, and nor will their ideology. Israel know that.
What's also noticeable is how those who kept saying that Israel would happily live alongside the Palestinians have kept quiet after the Israeli's latest sprees in the west bank, and their objection to the creation of a Palestinian state.