Waack: Conflict in the Middle East is heading towards an abyss of tragedy

The chances of external interference in Israel’s decisions to achieve the declared objective of liquidating Hamas in Gaza are very low.

This was once again evident at this Tuesday’s (24) meeting at the United Nations (UN) Security Council, in which the secretary-general himself caused an uproar by saying that Hamas’ terrorist attacks did not come out of nowhere. , and do not justify the Israeli military campaign of total siege of Gaza and intense bombings.

Israel says it is ready to invade territory dominated by Hamas by land, and has the support of the United States in refusing to admit a ceasefire, which in the Israeli view of the conflict would only benefit Hamas.

The United States and France, among other powers, ask Israelis to respect the “laws of war”, which say that civilians must be respected and protected.

In the type of military operation in which Israel is involved, however, “laws of war” have little chance of being respected; Nowhere involving combat within cities have they gone.

What seems so far to have held back the Israeli desire to invade Gaza are the two hundred hostages held by Hamas in underground captivity, and less the international pressure to exercise restraint, a factor that was evidently in Hamas’ calculations.

What we see today is an international order that has become disorder, in which powers “outside” the area have little capacity to impose any type of solution. They are dragged into the internal logic of the conflict, and there is no one who can put the brakes on.

The conflict is descending into an abyss of even greater tragedy and suffering. At the head of the UN, the mother of a Hamas hostage addressed the ambassadors saying that, in the competition of pain, she never has a winner.

There’s no point in her being completely right.