The Latest Gaza War and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict SYNOPSIS

The Latest Gaza War and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict By Rohan Gunaratna SYNOPSIS Following the surprise launch of Hamas’ multi-prong offensive to battle Israel on 7 October, the decades-long conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinian people has moved a step closer to a full-scale war drawing in other countries in the Middle East. [...] The surprise offensive and its tactics clearly reaffirmed Hamas as a terrorist organisation, as designated by the United States of America (US), the United Kingdom, member states of the European Union, and other countries in different regions of the world. [...] For Israel, the failure of intelligence to anticipate the attack, the large number of casualties suffered to date, and the terror wrought on society, rendered the attack as Israel’s equivalent of the 9/11 attacks on the US twenty-two years ago. [...] First, if this were to escalate into a regional war, who would be the parties involved? It is important to note that this is not 1973, and despite appearances that states are aligning against Israel, the support from the region’s Sunni states against the Jewish state is limited mainly to the streets than the corridors of power. [...] The UAE has attributed blame to Hamas, and Saudi Arabia faces the challenge of maintaining its previous policy on Islamists without losing prestige in the eyes of the Muslim population not only in the Middle East but elsewhere in the world.