But October 7 was not the start of the current phase of the long war. You only have to look at what Israelis were doing the week before to see that. Hamas did not gather and decide to attack because they were bored. They attacked because of what Israel has been doing steadily.
As for whether targets are military or civilian matters enormously. If that was not so, Israel would not be patting itself on the back for a two civilians per militant kill ratio. If this was a case of expansionist Muslims dealing with Jews who lived on land they wanted, I suspect you would agree.