More than 800 Israelis and 500 Palestinians are dead as a dramatic escalation in the Israel-Palestine conflict threatens to upend recent hopes for peace deals in the Middle East. On Saturday, the Palestinian militant group, Hamas, launched its most audacious attack ever on Israel, sending fighters on trucks, paragliders and boats into southern Israel, where they attacked soldiers and civilians alike and took dozens back with them into the Gaza Strip, which the group controls. Israel, with one of the world’s most sophisticated militaries and intelligence networks that allow it to control and monitor every act of Palestinians, appears to have been caught by surprise. It has now launched a deadly bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip, which it has blockaded for almost two decades. Israel has also announced that it will cut supplies of water, electricity, food and fuel to the coastal enclave in what is likely to be viewed as an act of collective punishment in the eyes of international law. Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the illegally-occupied West Bank are now bracing for a full-fledged ground invasion by Israeli forces, which could lead to an upward spiral in the death toll.

All of this has the deepest of implications for Israelis, who have not seen such human losses since the 1973 war against a coalition of Arab armies, as well as for Palestinians who will suffer from Israel’s response. There will be major consequences for the region and the world — including India. Over the past three years, a series of deals brought many former enemies in the Middle East on talking terms with each other. The Abraham Accords brokered by the former president of the United States of America, Donald Trump, enabled Israel’s diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. China facilitated a normalisation deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia and the US has been trying to broker an Israel-Saudi Arabia normalisation agreement, which Riyadh will no longer be able to accept. The Abraham Accords will come under stress, as will India’s efforts to balance its traditional support for Palestinian statehood with its growing leanings towards Israel. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has responded to the Hamas attacks by making it clear that India stands by Israel, a position broadly echoed by the Congress. Yet India cannot claim the leadership of the Global South if it abandons the Palestinian cause, a festering reminder of colonialism and apartheid. Hamas has made New Delhi’s task harder.