Meanwhile, Israel goes ahead with its wrecking ball in Gaza

📌 Summary:

• Context: PM Netanyahu announced (Thursday) he has ordered the Israeli military to take control of 70% of Gaza — a direct violation of the October 2025 Trump-brokered Israel-Hamas ceasefire
• Core argument: Netanyahu's renewed escalation, in the middle of the Iran war fallout, is driven less by genuine security imperatives and more by his domestic political objectives ahead of Israel's first elections since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack
• Causal chain: (1) Israel has been violating ceasefire with strikes on Gaza even while attention was diverted to Iran war (2) Recent weeks: Tel Aviv has been sidelined in US-Iran talks aimed at ending the war the US-Israel initiated jointly (3) A tense Trump-Netanyahu phone call exposed divergence; the war is unpopular in the US, mounting political costs for Trump administration (4) Netanyahu's strategy: prolong conflict to defer domestic accountability for the 7 October 2023 security failure ("eternal war" template)
• Data on toll: Over 2+ years of conflict, Israel has failed to achieve its stated objective of destroying Hamas, while killing at least 75,000 civilians and reducing Gaza to "dust and ashes"
• Status of Trump's peace plan: (a) Trump's 20-point plan and "Board of Peace" had raised optimism for Israel-Palestine resolution (b) Repeated Israeli violations have effectively shredded the plan (c) The peace board has not received any of the billions pledged by donors
• Editorial's solution / India-relevance argument: Peace in Gaza requires Israeli restraint and "institutional credibility" capable of assuaging Palestinian fears — Netanyahu's latest order does the opposite; Trump, who claims he can make Netanyahu do "whatever I want", has turned a blind eye
• International / comparative angle: Israeli unilateralism is succeeding because of US permissiveness — the same dynamic India faces in seeking a balanced policy on Palestine

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS2 — India's West Asia policy, India-Israel-Palestine balancing, multilateral conflict resolution, role of US in regional security architecture; GS3 — energy security (Hormuz, oil prices).

📝 Prelims Facts:

• 7 October 2023 — Hamas attack on Israel; trigger of Gaza war
• October 2025 — Trump-brokered Israel-Hamas ceasefire
• "Board of Peace" — proposed Gaza-governance body under Trump's 20-point plan
• Civilian casualties cited in editorial: ~75,000
• India's position: supports two-state solution; voted for UN ceasefire resolutions in 2023-24

🔑 Key Term: Two-State Solution — Long-standing international framework (endorsed by UNGA, UNSC and India) for an independent, viable Palestinian state living alongside Israel within pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as Palestinian capital.