Perspective

With the death toll soaring in Gaza, the international community urging Israel to show restraint, and Israelis and Jews still reeling from the October 7 Hamas attacks, Hannah Weisfeld is firm in her belief that a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians is the only viable route to peace. She is the founder of Yachad, a British Jewish organisation working to empower British Jews to support a political resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Even before the unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel, fears of another major conflict between Israelis and Palestinians had been brewing for years. The deadly October 7 assault on southern Israel made those fears a reality. Many are now concerned an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza could turn the war into a wider, regional conflict. Andrew Thomas, an associate lecturer in Middle East Studies at Deakin University in Melbourne, joined us on Perspective to give us his analysis.

As deadly Israeli air strikes on Gaza continue, we speak to Sari Bashi, Program Director at Human Rights Watch. She tells us that hundreds of people are being killed in Gaza every day due to the use of large explosive weapons dropped by Israel. She also says that fuel supplies have to be restored to Gaza now to prevent many more people from dying. Although she recognises the severity of the October 7 attacks on Israel, Bashi says that the Israeli military's warning for people to leave the north of Gaza is impossible for many. She says that some Palestinian civilians who initially left the north of Gaza are now actually returning, as conditions in the south are no better.

Hezbollah could be forced into a war with Israel, but for now it’s trying to avoid any major conflict. That's the view of Ziad Majed, a professor of Middle East studies at the American University in Paris. Majed, who was born in Beirut and lived for years in Lebanon, says the already difficult conditions for ordinary citizens there mean Hezbollah does not want war with Israel, but that it remains useful to keep a low-level conflict simmering on the Israeli border.  He warns, though, that Iran could pressure Hezbollah to enter the conflict fully, depending what happens in Israel's war with Hamas. He spoke to us in Perspective.

The world-renowned Israeli filmmaker Amos Gitai has told FRANCE 24 how Israel is now a "traumatised society" after the events of October 7. Likening the plight of Israelis to the American population after 9/11, he said the savage attack on civilians by Hamas is even worse than what happened in the Yom Kippur War of exactly 50 years ago, during which he himself was injured. Gitai is however highly critical of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as he calls for "peaceful solutions" to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Experts say both Israel and Hamas have breached international humanitarian law, which dictates what can and cannot be done in times of conflict. But have or will either side be held accountable? For a closer look at the legal situation, Marco Sassoli, an international law professor at the University of Geneva, joined us on Perspective.

As the Israel-Hamas war continues, we spoke to Donatella Rovera, a Senior Crisis Adviser for Amnesty International. "International humanitarian law is there and has to be respected by all parties. The fact that Hamas militants have carried out attacks that killed hundreds and hundreds of Israeli civilians and have abducted Israeli civilians does not give Israel carte blanche to kill thousands of Palestinian civilians, which is what has been happening since October 7," she told us in Perspective.

Ofer Bronchtein is president of the International Forum for Peace and was an adviser to Israel's former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated in 1995 by an Israeli ultranationalist who opposed the signing of the Oslo Accords. Bronchtein tells Perspective that, in the wake of the October 7 attack by Hamas that killed more than 1,400 people in Israel, the nation must do all it can to resist the urge for vengeance. Aid agencies are warning of an imminent humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza amid retaliatory Israeli air strikes that have killed more than 2,750 Palestinians there.

With a looming incursion by Israeli forces into Gaza expected in the coming hours, and more than a million Gazans being told to flee their homes in the northern part of the Palestinian enclave, we look at the best- and worst-case scenarios that could come as a result of the Israeli ground operation. Ian Lesser, vice president of the German Marshall Fund think tank, gives us his analysis of where the crisis is heading. He spoke to FRANCE 24's Gavin Lee in Perspective.

As the war between Israel and Hamas enters its sixth day, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is worsening. At least 1,200 people are now confirmed dead in the Palestinian enclave and more than 300,000 displaced as Israel mulls a ground invasion. Washington's top diplomat Antony Blinken is travelling to the Middle East for a trip aimed at demonstrating support for Israel, encouraging the release of hostages and preventing a wider war from breaking out. But will US involvement make any difference? In Perspective, we spoke to analyst Michael Shurkin, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.