By Athena Papakosta

The Israel-Hamas war completed 100 days. At least 23,968 Palestinians and 1,200 Israelis are dead, the Gaza Strip has been leveled, 85% of the enclave’s 2.3 million inhabitants have been displaced and ¼ of the population is starving.

After Hamas’s attacks against Israel on October 7, the war between the warring sides risks widening and becoming regional. Israel is exchanging fire with Lebanon’s Hezbollah as the other, also Tehran-backed, groups attack US targets in Syria and Iraq while Yemen’s Houthi rebels attack merchant ships in the Red Sea as the United States advances, finally, in retaliation.

For now, the Shiite group Hezbollah remains cautious. Its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, on Sunday, called the strikes by the international coalition against the Houthis a “foolish move”, pointing out at the same time that what the Americans did “will damage the safety of all navigation” as, as he explained, “the sea it has become a theater of battles, missiles, drones and warships”.

Earlier, an anti-tank missile struck northern Israel, near the border with Lebanon, killing a 40-year-old man and his 76-year-old mother. “We continue. We are causing losses to the enemy,” said Hassan Nasrallah, while the spokesman for the Israeli Armed Forces (IDF), Daniel Hagari, pointed out that Israel will not tolerate attacks on civilians with the Israeli army launching a series of strikes against Hezbollah positions.

The risk of Hezbollah’s involvement in the war remains greater than at any time since the last conflict with Israel in 2006. For now it has been averted as both sides opt to exchange fire from a distance. However, the killing of Hamas’s political wing number two following a surgical strike on the Shiite group’s headquarters in Beirut has reignited the combustible Middle East landscape with the Islamist Palestinian group and Hezbollah openly blaming Israel.

The Israeli leadership insists that the war will not end until Hamas is completely defeated and despite international pressure continues to escalate its attacks in the southern Gaza Strip and Khan Younis. In fact, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, does not exclude the Israeli army from reaching the border of the Gaza Strip with Egypt, in Rafah where the displaced Palestinians have found refuge.

According to analysts, Israel has not achieved the goals it has set and, according to some, it is possible that it will not succeed. The next day remains unknown for the Gaza Strip and the immediate future, as the British BBC writes, in the entire region – especially for the thousands of civilians who live in miserable conditions – is bleak.