After 100 days, the Israel war threatens to spill beyond Gaza

The conflict has swung from a brutal Hamas attack to Israel's ferocious retaliation with no end in sight

- Rory Jones

After 100 days, Israel's war with Hamas is turning into a protracted conflict with no clear end, threatening to spread across the Middle East, disrupt global trade and bog down the U.S.

One of the biggest geopolitical events this century, the war has swung from a Hamas attack on Oct. 7 that Israel says killed 1,200 people to the Israeli military's ferocious retaliation against the militant group in Gaza.

More than 23,000 Palestinians have been killed, mostly women and children, Palestinian authorities say, a number that doesn't distinguish combatants from civilians, and nearly 70% of Gaza's 439,000 homes and about half of its buildings have been damaged or destroyed.

The U.S. has come to Israel's aid in a war that poses one of the defining foreign-policy tests for President Biden.

The conflict and the administration's staunch support for Israel have reverberated in U.S. domestic politics, sparking a wave of protests at college campuses and adding fuel to the culture wars just as the president heads into a contentious election.

The Gaza conflict has forced the U.S. to refocus on the Middle East after years of redirecting diplomatic and military resources to counter a rising China. It has distracted from U.S. efforts to help Ukraine beat back Russia's invasion.

The conflict has scrambled one of Biden's top foreign-policy priorities: U.S.-backed normalization talks between Israel and Saudi Arabia that were meant to reshape diplomatic and security alliances in the region and help contain Iran. With tensions high between the U.S. and Arab countries, it is unclear how and when the U.S. will be able to resume those talks, which have been suspended.

Now, the question of how to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for years largely ignored by the international community and Israel, is again central to global diplomacy-though the pathway to a two-state solution appears rockier than ever.