Palestinians are seen on a street between buildings destroyed in Israeli strikes in the northern Gaza Strip city of Jabalia, on Oct. 6, 2024. (Photo by Mahmoud Zaki/Xinhua)

Sama Tubail celebrated her ninth birthday on Saturday. A month ago, the Palestinian girl expressed her greatest wish to Xinhua: to have her hair back before her birthday.

Her wish didn't come true, and the harsh reality of the war has completely dashed her hopes.

In a displacement tent in southern Gaza's Khan Younis city earlier this year, Tubail lost 80 percent of her hair in three days due to war trauma. Even worse, she couldn't access proper treatment in Gaza as Israel's ongoing siege on the enclave has deprived local hospitals of much-needed medical resources.

"My daughter really needs to travel to receive treatment," said Om Mohammed, Tubail's mother, when Xinhua checked back with the girl.

Having stretched on for a year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is still blighting the lives and livelihoods of Gazans, killing and maiming more civilians and causing the survivors, like Tubail, relentless mental suffering. Despite widespread demands for an immediate ceasefire, the war continues to devastate Lebanon and other neighboring lands, leading to a rising regional death toll that has horrified the world.

As houses are being flattened and sirens still shrieking, fears of what comes next have filled the air. Is peace still within reach? Or will the entire Middle East slide into the abyss of an all-out war?

BAD TODAY, WORSE TOMORROW

Jihan Ziyara used to love Gaza's winter. Crammed together with her seven-member family in a makeshift tent barely 14 square meters in Deir al-Balah, the 45-year-old displaced Palestinian now dreads the arrival of a damp winter, whose heavy rains, gales and cold spells could flood streets in displacement camps, uproot makeshift tents, and leave families exposed to the elements.

"Now we pray that winter doesn't come and that rain doesn't fall, as we have no means to protect ourselves from drowning in floodwaters," she said.

Israel launched a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against an attack by the former on the southern Israeli border on Oct. 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 taken hostage. Over the year, Israeli attacks on Gaza have killed 41,825 Palestinians and injured 96,910, according to the latest figures from Gaza health authorities. Some researchers have suggested that the actual figures could be several times higher.

Those with severe limb injuries, amputations, traumatic brain injuries and major burns cannot get the care they need. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs wrote on social media platform X in late September that only 17 of 36 hospitals in Gaza remain partially functional. A mere 57 of 132 primary healthcare facilities can operate, and shortages of fuel and medicine are crippling health facilities.

Grieved people are pictured at a hospital in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on April 1, 2024. (Photo by Khaled Omar/Xinhua)

For Ziyara and the other 1.8 million people who survived, they were forced to live within fragile shelters made with tattered clothes and remnants of nylon tarps obtained from aid trucks in so-called "safe zones," struggling with severe shortages of food, medicine and other humanitarian necessities, and worrying about dying at any second from constant Israeli bombardment.

In fact, according to a press release by the independent humanitarian organization Norwegian Refugee Council in early September, those "safe zones" designated at the onset of the conflict have been reduced to around 13 percent of Gaza amidst Israeli attacks, with a population density of more than 30,000 people per square km.

Women and children are particularly vulnerable to the "inhumane" situation in Gaza, according to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees. Data from the UN and the World Health Organization showed that of all the displaced Palestinians, an estimated 43,580 are pregnant women. Some 240,000 children between six months and five years of age have been screened for malnutrition in Gaza since mid-January. More than 500,000 children were identified as needing mental health and psychosocial support.

"Life has become nothingness without water, food, the basics of life and a source of income. How can we live in such a situation?" lamented Sharif Atallah, a Palestinian from Deir al-Balah.

The world has "failed the people of Gaza," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said lately. "The only certainty they have is that tomorrow will be worse."

People try to get food relief in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia, on July 18, 2024. (Photo by Mahmoud Zaki/Xinhua)

 "A SECOND GAZA"

Dusty air, deafening blasts, searing fire, wailing sirens, panicked crowd fleeing for lives, ambulances scrambling to rescue survivors ... While Gazans are still pinning their hopes on a ceasefire to end their year-long misery, the warfare has already encompassed Lebanon, marking the land with heartbreaking Gaza deja vu.

Starting from Sept. 23, confrontations between Hezbollah and Israel have escalated after the latter announced a shift in military focus from Gaza to the northern front. Israel has intensified airstrikes on Beirut and its suburbs, mainly targeting Hezbollah officials and facilities, and has launched what it describes as a "limited" ground operation into Lebanon. Meanwhile, Hezbollah has retaliated by firing rockets towards northern Israel.

Amid the escalating tensions, Israel also launched airstrikes at Yemen during the past week in response to Houthi attacks, and it has vowed to launch a "significant retaliation" against Iran soon in response to Iran's missile attacks Tuesday night.

So far, non-stop Israeli airstrikes have resulted in more than 1,000 deaths in Lebanon. The airstrikes also killed Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, along with other senior commanders, as well as a senior commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Some one million people, including more than 400,000 children, were forced from their homes across Lebanon during Israel's most intense military action in the country since 2006. Tens of thousands of people have fled Lebanon for the relatively safe Syria at various crossing points open 24 hours a day, according to UN data.

Adel Farran, a displaced Lebanese from southern Lebanon's Kfar Kila village, said 80 percent of houses in his village were destroyed, and the rest were uninhabitable.

"We spent about 10 hours on the road until we reached the town of Rashaya," he said, noting the trip previously took under 45 minutes.

"Our hearts are bleeding. We lost almost everything," he said.

Imran Riza, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Lebanon, said that for nearly a year, Lebanon's people, especially those in the south, had "lived in fear" that the war in Gaza could come to them.

"We are witnessing the deadliest period in Lebanon in a generation, and many expressed their fear that this is just the beginning," Riza said.

As bombs continue to rain down on Lebanon, regional countries, organizations and anti-Israel factions have repeatedly denounced Israel, accusing it of carrying out a "heinous crime" and "brutal aggression."

Globally, Pope Francis called Israel's attacks in Lebanon "immoral." At the recently concluded UN General Assembly, France, Belgium, Morocco, South Africa, the Maldives, and China, among others, have all urged an immediate end to Israeli strikes in Lebanon.

"What concerns me (is) the possibility of transforming Lebanon (into) another Gaza," Guterres said in late September.

"It is high time to stop the sickening cycle of escalation after escalation that is leading the people of the Middle East straight over the cliff," said the UN chief later, who was most recently declared persona non grata in Israel and banned from entering the country.

NO END IN SIGHT

Amidst Israel's wider battlefront backed by U.S. financial and military aid and the contradictory yet unyielding stances taken by the warring parties, experts believe a ceasefire in either Gaza or Lebanon is far beyond reach, and the regional situation may soon spiral out of control.

A Gaza ceasefire, which is the ultimate "key for transitioning from regional warfare to 'day-after' scenarios," seems quite unlikely, Nimrod Goren, senior fellow for Israeli Affairs at Washington-based Middle East Institute, told Xinhua.

"(Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu has been putting additional conditions time and time again, and Hamas does not seem interested in a deal as well," Goren said.

"Israel to continue taking provocative actions will leave Hezbollah no choice but to enter a war which might eat up all the regional stability and security," said Heba Gamal Eldin, professor of political science at Egypt's Institute of National Planning and a member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign Affairs.

Netanyahu is taking "irresponsible actions" either for "defending his personal interests or for ending the power of Iran," Eldin told Xinhua.

"A cycle of violence risks creating divides difficult to overcome. Israel looks determined to realize its end goal. Without any clear global leadership, regional powers are also unwilling to contribute heavily to ceasefire efforts," said Batu Coskun, a non-resident fellow at UAE-based TRENDS Research & Advisory.

"The large amount of tanks and thousands of troops now amassed in the north point to planning for a much larger foray than the one Israel has telegraphed" as a "limited" ground operation, The Washington Post wrote Wednesday.

For Eitan Shamir, managing director of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Israel's Bar-Ilan University, the Middle East is already in a regional war. "The only component missing is Iran. So the question is, when is Israel going to hit Iran?"

In the eyes of many, the United States is equally to blame for the dire regional situation. A Politico report in late September revealed while Washington publicly urged Israel to curtail its strikes on Lebanon, senior White House figures privately backed Israel's military push against Hezbollah.

An investigation published Friday by New York-based ProPublica said that the U.S. envoy to Israel sent a cable to Washington urging 3,000 more bombs to the Israelis in late January because they have a "decades-long proven track record" of avoiding killing civilians and that the U.S. embassy in Israel tries to protect Israel from scrutiny.

While the United States dubbed itself a mediator for Gaza and Lebanon ceasefires, both Democrats and Republicans are, in fact, hailing Israel as a "beacon of democracy."

According to a TRT World report on Saturday, U.S. Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris said she has no intention of changing President Joe Biden's policy towards arming Israel, while Republican candidate Donald Trump called himself the "best friend Israel has ever had."

"The U.S. plays a key role by providing military and political support to Israel. Its backing emboldens Israel to push forward with its agenda, especially as the Biden administration seeks to shore up its foreign policy credentials ahead of the 2024 presidential election," Mohammad Nader al-Omari, a Damascus-based Syrian analyst and international relations expert, told Xinhua.

"The United States plays the role of an intermediary from the outside, but in reality, it is an ally of Israel. It is pressuring Israel to some extent to prevent the expansion of the war, but it has also offered 8 billion U.S. dollars to support Israel," noted Iyad Sukarie, a lecturer in political science at the Lebanese University.

Regarding Washington's decision to "advise" Israel on how to retaliate against Iran's missile attacks on Tuesday, an opinion by Al Jazeera said, "not once has it occurred to the Biden administration to meticulously thwart Israel's ongoing genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip ... Nor has the oh-so-skilled U.S. military deemed it necessary to interfere in the wanton butchery currently going down in Lebanon."

A VOX article on Thursday noted that the United States seems to have put "almost no effort to truly restrain Israel following the failed ceasefire attempt."

"Israel's ongoing brutality and massacres" are "bolstered by U.S. imperialism," Baris Doster, an academic at Istanbul's Marmara University, told Xinhua. "This backing suggests that such violence is likely to persist."