Israel-Hamas War in Gaza: Rearrangement of Regional Powers and Implications for the Middle East

The recentIsrael-Hamas conflict in Gazaand their persistent military campaignagainst each other, owing to atrocities and mass destruction, have drawn international attention to the regional politics of the Middle East. Recent regional political changes have been disrupted, such as Arab-Israel efforts tonormalise relations after the Abraham Accords and the latest Saudi-Israel Peace Deal. The ongoing carnage in Gaza has pivoted Arab states’ interests away from the peace processes, thus shifting the regional as well asmajor powers’ alliance priorities. Iran, whose rapprochement with Saudia Arabia has begun, also warned of a pre-emptive attack against Israel should the latter invade Gaza. Most Arab states have shown solidarity with the Palestine cause; on the contrary, significant actors such as the United States(US) and the United Kingdom(UK) haveshown their supportfor Israel,as manifested bythe veto of UNSC resolutions. From a structural realist view, as propounded by Kenneth Waltz, international politics can be explained through a system-level analysis. It highlights cause-and-effect relations that can be observedbetween the states, primary units, and the anarchical international structure. Keeping this in mind, such rearrangement of alliances in the Middle Eastindicates the prolongation and intensification of war amid anarchy in an emerging multipolar world. Moreover, the war in Gaza holds a high chance of regional spillover. In any case, the war that ignited Israel-Hamas tensions is likely to continue unless prominentactors’ mediation brings to light the root cause of the problem,which lies in the illegal occupation of Palestine.