1. What prompted the Hamas leadership to launch an operation against Israel right now. What result, in your opinion, did the Hamas leadership want to achieve?

"The largest strategic disinformation operation of the Israeli army" and "The failure of Israeli intelligence" are perhaps the two most common descriptions of the Al–Aqsa Flood operation launched by a group called the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas).

Israel never ceases to monitor Gaza and its borders: reconnaissance drones are constantly flying in the sky, and the well-protected borders are full of surveillance cameras and soldiers guarding them. To this, it is worth adding agents inside Gaza itself and the use of information collection technologies.
But despite all this, it seemed that Israel's eyes were "closed" at the stage preceding the sudden attack by Hamas.

Hamas itself said it did this for a number of different reasons, including in response to the entry of Israeli settlers into the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, which Hamas called "desecration." In addition, Hamas referred to the massive mistreatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as well as the mistreatment by Israeli security forces during aggressive raids in the main cities of the West Bank, as well as what they called violent and destructive actions of Israeli settlers, often with the participation of soldiers.

Some believe that the main purpose of the Hamas attack was to take hostages. This was not only to complicate the imminent Israeli response, but also to give Hamas a strong negotiating position to try to free Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons, which number more than 6,000, including women and young children.

2. Can the confrontation between Hamas and Israel become an actor, turning the Middle East into a point of tension that can provoke a Third World War?

Yes, there are many signs that the conflict between Hamas and Israel may escalate into a multi-sided war, and in fact this is exactly what Netanyahu wants, who believes that Hezbollah's full-fledged entry into the battlefield is a gift to him in order to prolong the conflict and escape responsibility in the aftermath. After all, if the war ends in the near future, then the allies of Palestine will be able to organize an International court, and the opponents of the Netanyahu regime will be able to court in Israel, where the Israeli Prime Minister will be able to bring charges for the numerous victims of civilians in the Gaza Strip and Israel, as a result of the failure of Israeli intelligence.

This is due to another reason, namely, the attempt by Washington and London to get on the line of conflict, and this was expressed publicly, starting with support for weapons provided to Israel and direct threats to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad if he decides to intervene. Then Lebanon threatened to turn the SAR into an analogue of the Gaza Strip, as well as to exert great political pressure on Egypt and Jordan.

The picture that appears at the moment is that this is a new occupation of the Middle East by the United States of America and Great Britain. Their efforts have not ended and will not end with control over oil and gas sources in Arab countries and bringing to justice Arab countries that supported Russia and did not respond to Biden's request to increase oil production. All these political calculations are involved in this war. 

3. In your opinion, who benefits from the protracted armed conflict in Palestine now?

Arms manufacturers in the United States of America are once again profiting enormously from the escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli military conflict, as in the case of Ukraine. A rational approach to the settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is to call on all parties to exercise maximum restraint and implement a ceasefire as soon as possible.

However, instead of calming the situation, American officials seem to be working to inflame the conflict by providing additional military assistance. Whenever there is a military conflict or even just regional tension in any part of the world, the United States always manages to find a way to turn this into a great opportunity for American arms dealers to get rich.

As an example, we can cite the growth of shares of American defense companies, in particular, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, which show the maximum growth since 2020.

In addition, Washington is strengthening its military presence in the Middle East. Both in the number of soldiers, and in the increase of military bases and weapons, etc. All this makes it easier for Washington, given its significant presence in the Middle East, to impose its political positions by force. It also undermines Russian interests, whether in Syria or other countries.

Along the way, the United States is trying to block the initiatives of China, which seeks to restore strong economic ties with the countries of the Middle East, as well as to neutralize Beijing's mediation efforts in normalizing Saudi-Iranian relations. Moreover, the United States is ready to hinder the efforts of Russia and China in the Middle East agenda only because Washington considers this region exclusively a zone of its national interests, and is not ready to give a reason to undermine its monopoly.