An alarming escalation

What started as a bilateral conflict between Israel and Hamas on October 7 last year, is now on the verge of taking the form of a full-blown crisis.

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In response to Hamas' insensible decision of attacking Israeli citizens and taking many of them hostages, Netanyahu-led Israel crossed all limits by launching an unprecedented offensive in the Gaza Strip which ravaged the region and killed civilians in huge numbers - also displacing a majority of the population across the country. What Israel did in the Gaza Strip is not justifiable by any account. In fact, it did not stop there, and committed an 'alleged' genocide in Lebanon as well, through a disproportionate retaliation against Hezbollah's offensive.

Netanyahu, though not the sole perpetrator of the conflict in the West Asian region, appears to be blinded by a sense of power and authority. His motivation for going the extreme route appears to be driven by two factors. Firstly, there has been a nationalistic sentiment across the country following the Hamas attack on October 7 last year. One may recall that before the onset of the war, Netanyahu was fighting a losing battle inside Israel, in political terms. Power-hungry Netanyahu had little left to lose before the conflict broke out.