Bloodshed and paralysis: How the Oct 7 attack has changed Mid-East a year on

When armed men from Hamas, the radical Palestinian organisation in Gaza, crossed into Israel in the early morning hours of Oct 7, 2023, with the purpose of murdering or kidnapping any Israeli soldier or civilian in their path, they set in motion a brutal and bloody war. Still, nobody thought in its early days that the conflict would last so long or take the unexpected turns that it did.

Yet by the end of this week,

the Gaza war will reach the grim milestone of one year,

with no indication whatsoever that the bloodshed is about to end. It is a war which both Israel and Hamas are losing, while everyone else seems powerless to stop it. Yet, it is also a war that keeps on reshaping the Middle East in even more ominous directions.