Nature, Impact and Trend of the New Round of Conflict between Palestine and Israel

On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel, causing heavy casualties and more than 200 people were taken hostage. Israel immediately launched a large-scale retaliation campaign to carry out collective punishment against the residents of Gaza. In this new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the nature of the actions of both sides of the conflict has a dual nature: Hamas’s violent actions have a superficial terrorist nature and an inherent national liberation nature; Israeli military action has an illusory nature of self-defense and a real terrorist nature. In terms of the impact of the conflict, the conflict has promoted international and domestic polarization, and has made the international call for fairness and justice even higher; The conflict has increased the risk of terrorist attacks on Western countries; The conflict is generally unfavorable for the United States and favorable for Russia. As far as the trend of the conflict is concerned, the conflict will be mainly limited between Palestine and Israel, especially between Hamas and Israel and although there will be spillover, the scale will be limited; The conflict will last for a long time; New conflicts may be triggered in the later stage of the ongoing conflict. China should pay even more attention to the Palestinian-Israeli issue in the future.