A year into Gaza conflict: Regional tensions, humanitarian crisis worsen

Monday marks one year since Hamas' deadly attack on Israel. The anniversary comes with Israel still fighting in Gaza, engaged in a new conflict to the north in Lebanon against Hezbollah, and preparing its retaliation against Iran over its missile attack last week.

The Israeli army said on Monday that at least four projectiles were fired from Gaza, adding it had "struck Hamas launch posts and underground terrorist infrastructure throughout the Gaza Strip."

Hamas said in a statement that its fighters had fired rockets at "enemy gatherings" at Rafah crossing, Kerem Shalom crossing and Kibbutz Holit near the border with Gaza.

Lebanon's Hezbollah on Monday attacked Israel's third largest city, Haifa with a large salvo of rockets, the armed group said in a statement. Israeli police confirmed that rockets had struck Haifa, also a major port, and local media said 10 people were wounded there.

Since last month, Israel has conducted massive strikes on Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon and launched ground operations across the border.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has promised to ensure tens of thousands of Israelis forced to flee the Hezbollah fire are able to return to their homes, vowed to bring back all hostages still held by the Hamas in Gaza on Monday as the country held commemorations in many places to remember the dead and the hostages.

Facing Israeli strikes, Hamas and Hezbollah vowed to keep fighting, with the Palestinian militants describing their attack as "glorious" and Hezbollah branding Israel as a "cancerous" entity that must be "eliminated."

No end in sight

The fighting in Gaza and Lebanon has been accompanied by the threat of war with Iran, which last week fired more than 200 missiles at Israel in retaliation for the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and Iranian general Abbas Nilforoushan in a September 27 strike on Beirut.

Tehran on Sunday said it had prepared a plan to hit back against any possible Israeli reprisal, before Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Gallant warned Iran it could end up looking like Gaza or Lebanon's capital, Beirut.

Eitan Shamir, managing director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Israel's Bar-Ilan University, told Xinhua that the Middle East is already in a regional war. "The only component missing is Iran. So the question is, when is Israel going to hit Iran?"

James Dorsey, adjunct senior fellow from the School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, told CGTN that Israel will not let the (Iranian) missile attacks go unanswered, adding that it is discussing or coordinating with the United States.

Dorsey said Israel might hit Iranian nuclear facilities, oil installations or military facilities, adding that the military facilities would be the least escalatory measures Israel would take.

Noting a series of interconnected factors drove the unfolding conflict, Mohammad Nader Al-Omari, a Damascus-based Syrian analyst and international relations expert, told Xinhua that a crucial factor is the ongoing U.S. role in Israel's military operations, particularly in Gaza, which Netanyahu has framed as part of a broader effort to reshape the region.

Al-Omari said that the U.S. strategic interest in maintaining its influence in the Middle East plays a key role in Israel's "aggressive policies" toward Iran and its allies.

Some other experts believe that a ceasefire in either Gaza or Lebanon is far beyond reach. Nimrod Goren, senior fellow for Israeli Affairs at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, told Xinhua that "Netanyahu has been putting additional conditions time and time again, and Hamas does not seem interested in a deal as well," adding that a Gaza ceasefire seems quite unlikely.

Heba Gamal Eldin, professor of political science at Egypt's Institute of National Planning and a member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs, told Xinhua that "Israel continuing provocative actions will leave Hezbollah no choice but to enter a war which might eat up all the regional stability and security."

Netanyahu is taking "irresponsible actions" either for "defending his personal interests or for ending the power of Iran," Eldin added.

Bad today, worse tomorrow

Having stretched on for a year, the Israel-Hamas conflict is still blighting the lives and livelihoods of Gazans, killing and maiming more civilians. Despite widespread demands for an immediate ceasefire, the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah continues to devastate Lebanon and other neighboring lands, leading to a rising regional death toll.

According to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, 41,870 people, mostly civilians, have been killed since last October 7.

Besides, the Israel-Hezbollah conflict has killed more than 1,110 people in Lebanon and forced more than one million to flee their homes.

But on the ground, people were yearning for an end to the violence. "If I had known that the war would last a whole year, I would never have moved from northern Gaza," Mona Abu Nahl, 51, told AFP in Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip.

"It feels like the world stopped on October 7," said another displaced person, Israa Abu Matar, 26.

"It's already been a year since the start of the war. We've seen six schools that have been bombed just last week, so not only are they continuing to be bombed, there's been a pace increase in that. There is no safe place in Gaza," Georgios Petropoulos, head of the sub-office at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Gaza, told CGTN.

Petropoulos emphasized that there is a long road ahead to rebuild Gaza physically, mentally and culturally after the conflict.

The world has "failed the people of Gaza," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said recently. "The only certainty they have is that tomorrow will be worse."

(With input from agencies)