I am reading about the discovery of subatomic structure which includes all these things radioactivity, alpha rays, gamma rays, x rays et cetera. I read that electromagnetic radiations are energy intuitively. I also read that gamma and x rays have ability to penetrate, even more than alpha beta have which are materialistic.

The problem is that I can't confess how does energy penetrate? That is how does electromagnetic radiations have ability to penetrate. I can imagine of a matter affecting another matter physically even at microscopic level but can't imagine energy affecting matter directly on touch. I can imagine heat to expand matter but penetration means some type of force is applied to an object to push it inwards.