'
In the longer run stomping the palestinians into a bloody paste and then doing a mass explusion would have been the far kinder option. It would have ripped the bandaid off all at once and while it would have been painful by now the palastinians would have accepted their not going home and would have built themselves a new life amongst their fellow arabs.
Sometimes trying to be the good person just makes things worse all around.
It couldn't work due to an aspect of the conflict that is getting nowhere near the attention it deserves - the influence of "fellow Arabs" and their role in the grand scheme of the conflict.
There is a reason why said "fellow Arabs" are keeping the Palestinian diaspora as refugees, pushing the politics and funding in Palestine they do, did the war actions and policies they did.
Those aren't things Israel has control over, yet Arabs in general are quite clear in their... sociopolitical narrative that they care about Palestine rejoining the "Islamic world" far more than any amount of suffering, casualties or poverty befalling upon the few millions of Palestinians in Israel and other few millions elsewhere (just scratch that off as martyrdom).
One thing we can say for sure, if Arab rulers decided that they will let Palestinians freely immigrate to their countries (or even just legalize the status of the "eternal refugees"), some very populous and already hosting millions of them, so without much disruption, Israel couldn't do anything to stop them, and in fact probably would welcome it.
But they won't, because not doing so is a vital part of the pressure they are trying to inflict on Israel. If that gets Israel to back down, success, if Israel pushes upon them, then their suffering and anger is to be used to fuel the cause internally and also guilt trip naive infidels elsewhere, win-win.
It's oddly similar to Russian efforts with own minority abroad, officially in the name of protecting them, but when rubber hits the road and guns speak, such "protection" includes forming them into poorly armed and semi-trained separatist units and sending them as cannon fodder at the enemy, in the name of joining the land they live on into own orbit or state, whatever formal option is more convenient at the moment.
In conclusion, in line with the stereotypical treachery and deceitfulness of the region, no matter the smiles, paper and handshakes, the Arab world wages a continuous war against Israel since its independence, the war only changes its forms and intensity as strategic needs and opportunities dictate. Sometimes its overt, sometimes its covert, sometimes its hybrid, sometimes its a temporary ceasefire, but it's always somewhere out there.