They may have wanted a justification for escalation, but they didn't get it nor did they need it. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was "manufactured" and every fighter was a puppet.

This is broadly my reaction. When it happened, I was ranting that any Israeli official who’s acting surprised or shocked is a fucking liar because they’ve spent an incredible amount of effort over decades making sure that such an attack was absolutely inevitable. Send “settlers” out as a vanguard, focus your military might on rocket defense, then sit back and let your victims either attack or die. What else could possibly happen?

The only variables were the form the attack would take and how long the Palestinian people were willing to either waste away quietly or get sniped while staging peaceful protests