This is about geography. Netanyahu didn't care about the tiny sliver of land in Gaza, what he has ALWAYS set his eye on was the West Bank, and for sound strategic reasons. The West Bank nearly cuts Israel in half and makes its defense problematic at best. Israel's right has always intended to take the West Bank and all of Jerusalem to create a more defensible country, and as a corollary to force the Palestinian population to "self deport" when life there became untenable.

Funding life in Gaza was an attempt to make them quiet, compliant, and irrelevant. The Hamas attack was an attempt to make them relevant again, and of course to force the Saudis back into the anti-Israel camp.