As of this writing, Israel media is claiming 250 of its citizens are dead, and AlJezzera is claiming 232 dead in Gaza. Obviously what follows is speculation as I am not inside the minds of Hamas's leaders. Arguably this is the most successful operation by hostile forces in mainland Israel since the 1948-1949 war that erupted when Israel declared its independence(which is an important difference from the 1973 war this is being compared to). Besides speculating about the timing the speculation about the timing I will speculate about the future in several areas.
A few days ago 800+ Israeli settlers occupied the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Hamas is claiming this is the cause. I believe it is more a casus belli or at a least little of both.
The second reason that stares one in the face is to try and take advantage of internal divisions in Israel with the ongoing months of mass protests. I expect in the short term a rally around the flag attitude. Already there is talk of a unity government. What Hamas is banking on is what happened in the United States where following 9/11 the biggest rally around the flag effect since WWII occurred but in the long term, 9/11 exacerbated internal differences. Will that happen to Israel? The argument for it won't happen is that, unlike the George Floyd protests, Israel's were not violent and protesters carried Israeli flags and were saying the new government was violating Israel's core values not that the core values were inherently wrong. The argument for it will split Israel is that the protests have exposed irreconcilable differences between Ashkenazi Jews and Mizrahim Jews, and secular and religious Jews.
Also to take into consideration is that Israel's main ally is distracted by its internal divisions, Ukraine, and China.
There has been speculation the attack was timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the "Yom Kipper War". The attack occurred the day after the anniversary of the beginning of that conflict. Generally, attacks have not coincided with anniversaries Israelis consider important. Also if there was heightened awareness for the 50th anniversary there might have been a letdown that nothing happened again.
That leaves Hezbollah with its estimated 40,000-150,000 rockets that could arguably overwhelm Israel's Iron Dome defense. As of this writing, it is doing what it has done for the past 17 years, express support but not jumping in. I will defer to Face Of Boo on this matter.
Another big difference now is that Hamas has dozens if not hundreds of Military and civilian hostages in Gaza. The West in general always says we never negotiate with hostage takers but we almost always do so openly or in secret directly or through intermediaries. Israel has the toughest anti-terrorism reputation but it is no different. Most notably they made a deal with Hamas to exchange 1027 prisoners for one soldier. This is really one of those doing the same thing over and over again and getting the same result, more hostage taking.
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