Renewed crisis in Gaza

Following a short ceasefire between Israel and Palestinians, the Middle East is once again at a boiling point. Israel has launched a ground offensive in Gaza after resuming airstrikes that have killed over 500 Palestinians so far. Israel has also expanded military operations to Lebanon and beyond.

Heart-rending scenes are being replayed all over again:  hundreds dead, millions displaced, and an entire region teetering on the brink of further instability. The latest airstrikes, forced evacuations, and a blockade on humanitarian aid, has deepened the suffering of Gaza’s 2.4 million people.

The war began on October 7, 2023 attack after Hamas’ incursion into Israel, which killed around 1169 Israelis. Since then immense destruction has been caused with over 50,000 Palestinians losing their lives in Israeli retaliation. Thousands others have been injured. Israel has justified its actions as necessary to eliminate Hamas and secure its borders but the sheer scale of civilian casualties has raised serious questions about proportionality.

It is difficult to predict the course of events from hereon. After weakening Hamas, Hezbollah and even Iran, Israel sees a chance to remake the Middle East in its own image. And in this project, it has the full backing of the US under its new president Donalf Trump, who is providing military aid to help the Jewish state achieve its goals. But is this sustainable in the long term? Seems very unlikely if we go by the decades-old troubled history of the region.

Although the resumption of war has elicited global condemnation, except of course by the US, nothing seems likely to change on the ground. The reason for this is that the US is offering full material and diplomatic support to Israel to carry out the operation, the reaction of the rest of the world is confined to issuing statements. Would this global apathy change? Unlikely. But for the peace to return to Gaza, the world including India has to play a more proactive role in bringing this conflict to an end. That is, before this war claims even more lives and pushes the Middle East into deeper chaos.