It would not be unprecedented. Nixon prolonged the Vietnam war to help his election odds [1], and Israel itself perpetrated false flag attacks during the Lavon

It would not be unprecedented. Nixon prolonged the Vietnam war to help his election odds [1], and Israel itself perpetrated false flag attacks during the Lavon Affair [2], and, arguably, the attack on USS Liberty [3]. I'm not saying this attack by Hamas was allowed to happen (in fact, unless some evidence comes to light, the default assumption should be there was no conspiracy), but "I don't think the gov would sacrifice people" [4] is not a sure thing. It's probable, but not nearly certain. [1] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/nixon-prolonged-vietnam-war-for-political-gainand-johnson-knew-about-it-newly-unclassified-tapes-suggest-3595441/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/nixon-prolonged-vi... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavon_Affair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavon_Affair [3] Citing Ennes's book, Lenczowski notes: Liberty's personnel received firm orders not to say anything to anybody about the attack, and the naval inquiry was conducted in such a way as to earn it the name of "coverup". - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Liberty_incident [4] I deliberately cut your sentence short. Their goal could be different from just tarring Hamas. Such as swaying local elections, or increasing US military aid, sorry, cooperation [5], with Israel. [5] If this Capitol crumbled to the ground, the one thing that would remain would be our commitment to our aid, I don’t even call it our aid, our cooperation with Israel. - Nancy Pelosi, Israel-American Council Conference, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1LmnQRnw8I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1LmnQRnw8I