They can't. Hamas launched thousands of rockets on October 7th, and Israel has no way of stopping something like that again short of what they're doing now, a massive bombing campaign and land invasion to take out as much of Hamas' built-up stockpiles and war infrastructure as possible.
There is no workable defense here that doesn't require significant offense.
The Iron Dome stopped pretty much all the rockets
What didn’t stop Hamas on Oct 7th was Israel not paying attention to their own intelligence and the tips of neighboring countries, as well as an insanely slow response time
If they wanted to, they could definitely only defend themselves
They could also stop the illegal settlers and occupation in the West Bank (instead of using the IDF to support them)
And they could make an actual effort in working towards peace
But instead Israel has pretty much created this situation and has a president openly calling for the extermination of Palestinians (re: Amalek)
Wait, you can't possibly be blaming October 7th partially on Israel's insanely slow response time, can you? What is that sentence even supposed to mean?
The Iron Dome wasn't and isn't capable of stopping thousands of rockets. Also, each Iron Dome interceptor costs around $100k whereas each Hamas rocket costs only a few hundred dollars. It simply doesn't pencil out; Hamas can spend Israel down this way.
But the whole idea that Hamas can shoot rockets at Israeli civilian areas with impunity by the thousands whenever it wants, and all Israel is allowed to do is merely attempt to shoot down some of the rockets, is utterly absurd. It's a fantasy world. In the real world, if you wage war like that, you get struck back, and that's exactly what Israel is doing.
You don't seem to understand what war is, or how and why it is fought. What is currently going on is a WAR between Israel and Hamas, and it's absurd to expect one of the combatants to unilaterally disarm themselves while still under attack. That isn't how war works or how it has ever worked.
But instead, for whatever reasons, it’s choosing to attack
To me it’s clear the end goal of their attacks is not peace but rather domination and eviction
Also, this is not a war. This a genocidal massacre brought on by Israel on the Palestinians, and has been going on for decades all over that area. Gaza is just the main focus right now, but they are still slaughtering people in the West Bank
Israel has always chosen that path, and they probably feel it’s served them well, they’ve gained plenty of land. But they also kept the conflict alive, including Netanyahu and his party explicitly supporting Hamas to undermine peaceful Palestinian political movements
Let's try a really simple metaphor. I'm repeatedly shooting at you. I'm a shitty marksman, so many of my shots miss, and you're wearing body armor, so some of the shots that do hit you don't penetrate. But I'm going to keep shooting until you're dead. Are you going to just stand there and let me take shot after shot after shot until one connects with your flesh, or are you going to do something about it first? Oh, and you're holding a much better and more accurate gun than I am, and I'm unarmored. You can drop me with a single shot at any time.