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Is­rael is on the brink of launch­ing an­oth­er ma­jor of­fen­sive, this time in famine-strick­en Gaza City.

The in­ter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty, along with near­ly all Pales­tini­ans and many Is­raelis, want­ed the war to end a long time ago — and a cease­fire seemed pos­si­ble as re­cent­ly as last month. So why is the con­flict set to be­come even blood­i­er, near­ly two years af­ter Hamas’ Oct. 7 at­tack?

Crit­ics of Is­raeli Prime Min­is­ter Ben­jamin Ne­tanyahu ac­cuse him of pro­long­ing the war for po­lit­i­cal rea­sons. Ne­tanyahu blames Hamas, which still holds around 20 liv­ing hostages, and says crit­i­cism of Is­rael’s wartime con­duct is on­ly mak­ing the mil­i­tant group more in­tran­si­gent.