Why Hamas believed the status quo was more dangerous than its 7 October gamble

The events of 7 October cannot be understood outside the long history of Palestinian dispossession, occupation, siege and struggle. They cannot be examined seriously by beginning with the premise that Palestinians must justify their right to resist a system that has dispossessed them for generations. That right is not in question. What is open to question is why Hamas chose this particular course of action at this particular moment, and whether the decision was rational given what its leaders knew and could reasonably have anticipated before 7 October.