Gaza Conflict Creates A New Normal Six Months On

12 Apr 2024 Issue: 67 / 15 By: James Marriott, Peter Stevenson

Since 7 October the geopolitics of the Middle East has irreversibly changed. Energy markets have been largely undisturbed by the conflict, with trade-flows reconfiguring around the ongoing Red Sea blockage, but remain wary of the risk of Israel and Iran expanding their conflict. MEES looks at the ongoing conflict’s impact six months after Hamas’ deadly incursion into southern Israel.

On 7 October Hamas’ attack on southern Israel set off a war in the heart of the Middle East, which has had profound and long-lasting global geopolitical ramifications. In response, Israel launched a devastating campaign in Gaza which shows no signs of abating, and six months on hopes for containment of the conflict have proved wishful.

For Israel, plans for regional reconciliation epitomized by the 2020 Abraham Accords and the 2022 Lebanon maritime border deal appear to have run aground. While the two historic agreements remain valid, relations with its signatories have for now entered the deep freeze, and indeed relations with long-standing western allies have become increasingly strained by the conflict. (CONTINUED - 1940 WORDS)