Hamas existed first as on offshoot of the Islamist Muslim brotherhood. A lot their work was charity and social work like running kindergartens according to their beliefs. They were a marginal militant group until the Oslo peace process in the 1990s. Hamas was and is fundamentally opposed to accepting the existence of Israel. They never joined the PLO, like all other Palestinians political parties did.

So while the PLO lead the Arafat was making huge progress in negotiating for more and more Palestinian self rule with the goal of a state, Hamas bombed buses filled with school children in Israel. During a time where Israel was severely restricting and stopping construction of settlements and retreating from Palestinian population centers.

Hamas terrorism was a major factor in the peace process failing. The weakened the power of Fatah, by presenting themselves as the only ones who stick to true resistance goal of destruction of Israel. They demonstrated fierce determination by popularizing suicide bomb attacks, which was new at the time. This increased internal friction among Palestinians. The Intrafada during the first and later second Intifada was Palestinians killing 2000 Palestinians over this issue.

Ararat and later Abbas refused several peace deals offered. Many observers think a major reasons was being afraid of being murdered by Palestinians, if he signed a peace deal with Israel that included compromises. Just like had happened to Egyptian President Al-Sadat after he made peace and his Israeli counterpart Yitzak Rabin.

Hamas then really came into its own during the second Intifada, establishing itself as the most fanatic Palestinian faction. Their takeover of Gaza was their big victory in the civil war against Fatah. Instead of building a state there for Palestinians to live good lives, their main focus was the continued armed struggle against Israel from their new base. Remember there was no blockade after Israel‘s unilateral withdrawal and removal of settlements from Gaza. That only was instated after repeated attacks originating in Gaza and arms shipments at scale by sea.

Hamas succeeded in destroying the fragile but hopeful peace process during the 1990s. It then further demonstrated during the second intifada and afterwards, that they were only interested in war. From Hamas‘ perspective this even makes sense. Violence has lead to their biggest achievements: failure of the peace process, gain government power in Gaza, gain worldwide recognition and supporters, be seen as committed to resistance amongst Palestinians.

Hamas has also managed to obliterate the peace camp and political left inside Israel. Netanyahu and his ilk became more credible by saying there was no partner for peace.

Hamas has succeeded in splitting Palestinian political leadership. Attempts at unity governments have failed repeatedly. Remember that Palestinians used to have a united, internationally recognized political representation with the PLO. Hamas destroyed that. How can Israel be expected to make peace with the Palestinians, if they don’t even have peace among themselves?

The way Hamas has ruled Gaza was pretty bad for the people there. Not only did they impose more Islamic sharia rules, oppress free speech, free press, tortured political opposition, etc. Hamas invested billions into the military instead of building a country. Construction of hundreds of kilometers of tunnels and bunkers, import and manufacturing of weapons were valued the highest. Economic development, good relations with their neighbors, democratic freedoms were neglected.

Hamas is what happens when fanatic jihadism is supercharged by uncompromising irredentist nationalism and antisemitism. They oppose democratic, left, and progressive values.

Their strategy of endless war has lead to more Palestinian death in Gaza, than during the last hundred years of this conflict combined. It’s an utter failure.

Lots of Palestinians know this and are opposed to Hamas. I actually talk with Palestinians living in Israel and this is pretty much their perspective.

Encouraging contact between Israelis and Palestinians living there would actually help to improve the situation and achieve peace. This is something the BDS movement is opposed to.

Israel

Does plenty of bad stuff including war crimes, illegal settlement, etc.

Nazi resistance

That was a much shorter war and an overall a very different situation. Resistance groups fought on because they knew the war wasn’t over. Today you don’t see ethnic Germans blowing up busses in Danzig/Gdansk or Poles shooting rockets at Lviv. Tens of Millions Europeans were displaced during and after WW2. Today you don’t see ethnic Germans blowing up busses in Danzig/Gdansk or Poles shooting rockets at Lviv.

Israel/Palestine was born out of a civil war in mandatory Palestine. There were many opportunities to end it since 1947, all of them squandered by Palestinian leadership.

The international community‘s involvement in Israel/Palestine has been a total shambles since the Balfour declaration. Endless meddling and the locals vying for support of other powers has kept the conflict going and escalated it again and again. The UN partition plan from 1947 was rejected by the Arab states, while the local Palestinians weren’t even invited.

The way UNRWA was established and run is another failure. In all other cases of refugees, organizations like UNHCR and others helping refugees will resettle them elsewhere if return isn’t practical. Palestinians are unique in this regard. They are still considered refugees, even if only one great-grandparent fled, and they have gained citizenship of another country or even live in Palestine. UNRWA actively working on keeping Palestinians stateless, second class citizens, and teaching them in their schools about their eventual „return“ has kept this conflict alive. No other group of refugees and their descendants has been treated like that before or after.

The only way this conflict can end, is to make the locals talk to each other, and work together on figuring out a way to coexist and prosper.