The situation was volatile enough. But Tuesday night’s blast at a hospital in Gaza City has convulsed the Middle East in even greater turmoil.

While the violence between Israel and Hamas has so far been relatively localised, it threatens to set off a chain reaction, dragging in first neighbouring countries and then other, more powerful nations who will seek to defend their own geopolitical interests or exploit the chaos for their own ends.

As I write, Israeli troops are continuing to mass at the border of the Gaza Strip, threatening a land invasion and a new cycle of bloodshed.

At the same time, intense diplomatic efforts — Joe Biden‘s visit to Israel on Wednesday and Rishi Sunak‘s yesterday — are underway.

In a desperate attempt to calm the situation Biden issued an unequivocal warning to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: ‘Justice must be done. But I caution this: While you feel that rage, don’t be consumed by it.’

Any major military incursion on Gaza — however justifiable it might seem to the Jewish state to subdue a genocidal enemy — risks a disastrous escalation on multiple fronts, including dragging the superpowers into the maelstrom.

Hyperbole? I don’t think so.

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