For Hamas, there is no hope of winning an actual military offensive. They provoke only, and place photogenic victims in harms way of the inevitable response. They will provoke until they get a response, and that is why a response is inevitable.
They want to see more Palestinians in body bags, because that is sure to inflame the passions of the world, or at least the world with a free press willing to be a part of their propaganda machine. With negative reactions against Israel, what cannot be won in the military field becomes possible through the world itself taking action against Israel, making the Jewish state into the same Jewish pariah that Jews have played for millennia now.
When the world becomes as indifferent to Palestinian deaths as the Palestinian leadership is, then peace itself might become possible.
In the meantime, Palestinians can keep deluding themselves that more and more photogenic war dead among their children is actually a good thing.