Amid growing despair and rage, Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt are intensifying their appeals to the U.S. to pressure Israel for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza.
Failure to do so, they say, risks sabotaging the security of the entire Middle East.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has rejected calls for even a temporary cease-fire until hostages are released by Hamas, the armed Palestinian group that, in a brazen attack on Oct. 7, took about 240 captives and killed roughly 1,400 people, according to the Israeli authorities.
Israeli officials insist that their military campaign must destroy Hamas, which rules Gaza and is estimated to have tens of thousands of fighters inside the territory.
But Arab officials and scholars who study the Iran-backed militia argue that the goal is not only impossible but counterproductive, in that it would very likely generate even more violence.
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