Hamas did not lead any peace talks worth a damn

2008? 2012? 2013? These were all serious peace talks where they were unambiguously stiffed by Israel with clear malicious intent.

has only ever consisted of attacks on civilians, usually by firing missiles at settlements in unambiguously Israeli territory (attacking military installations or even settlements in the West Bank would’ve been at leriast somewhat defensible, but that’s not what they’ve been doing)

These attacks serve to cost Israel money needed to run the iron dome, and in large quantities can be a way of exerting political pressure (see: 2021) and causing economic losses by forcing evacuations. It’s not pretty, but it works.

then hiding behind their own civilian population to hinder Israeli retaliation, getting them killed in the process.

I’ve literally never seen evidence for this. And please don’t tell me they put their headquarters in residential areas because literally every military in the world does that. The human shields argument is, when you get down to it, taking issue with the fact that Hamas exists in Gaza, which is… Yeah.

They also did all that from Gaza, an area that Israel de-occupied after the Second Intifada, and which could have served as a positive example of peaceful Palestinian self-government and eventually independence instead of the opposite.

Educate yourself. This is too wrong to correct it all, but let me just point out that the blockade started immediately after the deoccupation and that Gaza is still considered occupied by the UN. Israel never had any intention of allowing peaceful Palestinian existence.