The world is once again facing the uncertainty of a potential region-wide war in the Middle East, where the pain and blood of centuries of enmity was marked yesterday as the one-year anniversary of the attack by Hamas on Israel.

On October 7, 2023 Hamas sent explosive drones and fired thousands of rockets from Gaza into Israel, bulldozing through fences bordering Israel and utilising low-tech means, such as paragliders, to land in the southern part of the Jewish territory.

The shock attack on the Sabbath clearly caught the Israelis napping and claimed the lives of an estimated 1,200 people, including nationals of other countries.

Hamas fighters took hundreds more hostage whom they raped and brutalised and still have in their possession a year later.

Embarrassed by the attack, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has unleashed the full force of the Israeli defence apparatus, vowing to wipe out Hamas, thus rendering it unable to launch a future offensive against Israel.

It is one of those developments in human history which even peace-lovers find difficult to parse. Israel has every right to retaliate against an enemy, as any other country would have. Yet, the issue is way more complex and complicated than that.

For example, Israel has killed an estimated 41,500 Palestinians, a great many of them innocent women and children, and triggered an almost unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Food, water and medical supplies remain scarce, setting off starvation and untreated illness. Entire neighbourhoods have been reduced to rubble, leaving people without housing and other important infrastructure, according to news reports.

The major news networks covering the war have concluded that Israel has weakened its enemies, devastated Gaza and its people, and almost crippled Hamas. Thousands of its fighters, including many leaders have been killed, its weapons stockpiles destroyed, and its previous bases of operations in Gaza left in ruins.

The question now is how much more bloodshed and destruction will satisfy the Israeli Administration’s need for vengeance? It is clear that more devastation is to come, as Mr Netanyahu and his supporters have been resisting calls for a ceasefire and negotiations to release those hostages still alive.

What may be worse is that the war is teetering on the edge of a regional conflagration, involving Lebanon and Iran. Israel is fighting on three fronts, with fears that matters could escalate quickly with all-out war on Iran, which supports Hamas and Hezbollah.

This eventuality would force Israel’s allies in the West to play a greater role to protect her from the fury of three combined enemies.

We in this space count ourselves among the peace-loving people of the world, all of whom yearn for an end to this war in the Middle East. This level of suffering can only lead to more enmity and wasteful consumption of the Earth’s resources.

Israel believes that Hamas is hiding in schools, hospitals, and other civilian buildings in Gaza and the only way to get to them is to strike those places. That approach means that it may be necessary to wipe out the Palestinian people in Gaza in order to achieve that end. That would be nothing less than genocide.

We continue to believe that negotiations towards a two-state solution remains the only hope for peace in the Middle East.