The 8000 respondents, from 16 different countries, answered questions on what they thought about Hamas, their opinion on Iran and Western countries, and what actions were needed by Arab states.
I don’t think anyone is defending the actual killing of civilians. The idea is that the civilians who died (including by Israeli hands, by the way, can’t forget that), were incidental and had no basis in leadership orders. AFAIK the plan was go attack Israeli bases and soldiers, take hostages, return to the strip, but since Hamas isn’t exactly a properly trained modern army (I mean those also commit warcrimes and we don’t blame it on leadership unless provable) and Israel just shelled and shot their own citizens the numbers got this bad.
I don’t think anyone is defending the actual killing of civilians. The idea is that the civilians who died (including by Israeli hands, by the way, can’t forget that), were incidental and had no basis in leadership orders. AFAIK the plan was go attack Israeli bases and soldiers, take hostages, return to the strip, but since Hamas isn’t exactly a properly trained modern army (I mean those also commit warcrimes and we don’t blame it on leadership unless provable) and Israel just shelled and shot their own citizens the numbers got this bad.