House destroyed in Gaza ( Image credits- Wikimedia commons/ Author- Graha ) The war between Israel and Hamas is one of the more puzzling events in the recent annals of the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A ceasefire had held between the two parties for nearly a year and a half; the strategic payoff of the latest conflict is vague for both sides, and neither side seemed to have an obvious interest in going to war. Even if it's clear that both Israel and Hamas had been preparing for a major conflict, with Hamas spending 40% of its budget on its tunnel network and booby-trapping UN infrastructure and the Israelis looking increasingly committed to a long and already costly ground operation inside of a hostile Gaza Strip, it's uncertain why the worst conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in well over a decade is happening now. The truth is that rival diplomatic, sectarian, and ideological blocs that have been on a steady collision course are colliding
